The Republican Left Democratic Front, a coalition of 16 parties including PWP, Left, JD(S), Samajwadi Party and united RPI, will not have an alliance with Congress-NCP in Maharashtra Assembly elections, Front leaders said on Saturday.
“The Front will not have an alliance with Congress-NCP, even if either Sonia Gandhi or Sharad Pawar were to ask us,” RPI leader Ramdas Athawale said after a meeting of Front leaders here.
The Front, formed earlier this month, two months ahead of the Maharashtra assembly elections, aims to provide an alternative to the ruling Congress-NCP and opposition Shiv Sena-BJP, he said.
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The Front poll campaign would be launched with a rally at Shivaji Park on September 12 and leaders like Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, RJD leader Lalu Prasad, Ram Vilas Paswan, former Prime Minister H D Dewe Gowda and Left leaders Sitaram Yechury and A B Bardhan have been invited for it, he said.
Addressing a press conference at the PWP office after the meeting of the Front leaders, Athawale said Republican faction leader Prakash Ambedkar who has stayed away from Republican unity efforts, was welcome to join the Front ‘not as a separate entity but as a part of united RPI.’