Chennai (PTI): Hitting back at the CPI(M) for blaming it for the below expected showing of the Third Front in the Lok Sabha polls in Tamil Nadu, the AIADMK on Friday asked the Marxist party to reflect on its own "shoddy performance" in Left ruled States.

The Jayalalithaa-led AIADMK, which headed the umbrella alliance comprising CPI(M), CPI, PMK and MDMK in Tamil Nadu, said the CPI(M) state unit's position smacked of "mischief and ridicule" and was "politically uncultured".

The AIADMK's sharp reaction came in response to the CPI(M)'s state unit stand that the "failure" of AIADMK to project the Third Front as an alternative to the Congress and the BJP was one of the reasons for the outcome not meeting their expectations.

Contrary to projections of a close fight, the AIADMK-led front had managed to win only 12 out of the 40 seats in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.

"Of the 81 seats CPI(M) contested nationwide, they won only 16. The party won only four of the 14 seats in Left ruled Kerala and another nine of 32 in West Bengal. Does this mean the party itself was not serious about projecting the Third Front?" AIADMK Headquarters secretary and former minister K A Sengottaiyan said in a statement here.

He pointed out that the CPI(M) had drawn a blank in many states and wondered whether AIADMK was responsible for the defeat there too. "One should think before criticising others," he said, adding that blaming an ally for the defeat was against the "alliance dharma".

On Mr. Varadarajan's allegation that AIADMK was "unilaterally highlighting" its stand on scrapping the Rs 2,400-crore Sethusamudram project, which CPI(M) opposes, Mr. Sengottaiyan demanded to know whether Mr. Varadarajan was not aware of the differences before forging an alliance.

Earlier, rumours of CPI(M) parting ways with AIADMK had surfaced after Mr. Varadarajan and other party leaders called on former ally DMK president and Chief Minister M Karunanidhi to wish him on his birthday last month, which the DMK leader had described as a routine meet.

Mr. Varadarajan, who was asked about continuing the alliance with AIADMK for bye-elections for five constituencies in Tamil Nadu, had said on Wednesday that the party would take a decision at "an appropriate time" and "after the announcement of the date for the polls".