GUWAHATI, JUNE 16: The Communist Party of India (CPI) has adopted a ``positive approach'' towards the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) floated by Sharad Pawar and group, and would go for seat adjustments with the new party in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, senior CPI leader and National council member Pramode Gogoi said here today.He said that the CPI had already discussed the matter in its national forum even before the NCP had held its Mumbai convention, `and now that it has become clear that it would fight both Congress and BJP', the CPI would try to bring the NCP under the third front umbrella.``This time too no party is going to secure a majority and the country is heading for yet another hung parliament. And it is now evident that the strength of both BJP as well as Congress will be reduced,'' Gogoi, a minister in the Mahanta Government in Assam, observed.He was, however, not clear how his party would go about securing its Left alliance partner the CPM's nod on the issue with the latterstill insisting that the Left parties support the Congress party.``The conflict with Pakistan in Kargil is also going to ultimately become an election issue once the war gets over,'' Gogoi remarked, adding that the BJP and its allies will ultimately stand to lose politically by the time the conflict blew over.In Uttar Pradesh and Bihar too CPI saw BJP's strength diminishing and Gogoi gave no more than 30 seats in UP. Regarding the AGP-led alliance in Assam, Gogoi revealed that it was considering the People's Democratic Front's offers. The PDP, a Bodo political party, recently split. ``Both PDF factions have approached us, and a final decision will be taken on July 5, when the alliance partners meet again,'' he said.The CPI is one of the four partners of the AGP-led alliance in Assam, the other two being the CPM And the United People's Party of Assam (UPPA). The People's Democratic Front, a former partner, had withdrawn within a few months in 1996, complaining of the alliance's alleged anti-Bodostand.
