PONDICHERRY: After failing to get a berth in the Democratic Progressive Alliance for the coming assembly elections, the CPI(M) is planning to field at least two candidates on its own.

"We were in touch with the DMK during the seat allocation talks. We wanted to contest two seats and that didn't work out," a senior party leader said.

The party did not want to engage the Congress party for the talks since it was a critic of the Rangasamy-led Government on many issues. More over, the party candidates fielded by its Kerala unit in Mahe and Pallor are fighting the sitting Congress MLA's.

The party State committee meeting would be held on Wednesday to decide on the number of seats, he said.

"We would be contesting at least two," he added.

In the last elections too, the party tried to have seat adjustments with the AIADMK but did not materialise. It contested the election on its own in two constituencies — Ariankuppam and Thirubuvanai (reserved). In Ariankuppam the party candidate came last and in the other came fourth garnering around 14 per cent votes.

This time during the seat allocation talks the party was offered a nominated MLA. "We have rejected the offer," T. Murugan, the CPI(M) Tamil Nadu State Committee member told The Hindu .

The party is yet to gain strength in Pondicherry and Karaikal region. In the past Assembly elections it has restricted to fielding candidates in a few selected constituencies. The largest number of seats that it contested was in 1996. In the three seats the party contested, its candidates for Lawspet and Neduncadu (reserved) came third.

Going by the share of votes, the party has a comparatively good presence in Thirubuvanai, Lawspet and Neduncadu constituencies.

In the 1990 and 91 elections the party candidates came second and could manage around 40 per cent of the votes. It always put a decent performance in the Neduncadu constituency and during 1985 election the candidate lost by a narrow margin of votes.

However, things are different in Mahe region. The party entered the legislative Assembly for the first time in 1974 from Mahe and gave outside support to the short-lived AIADMK Government. The party candidate again won the Mahe seat in 1980 Assembly election.

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