In presence of the party's general secretary AB Bardhan, state secretary Jalaluddin Ansari announced, "We never accepted Laloo's unilateral announcement three day ago and the message was clear when we decided not to be present at his press conference. He underestimated our strength. We have now decided that we will field nine candidates in the state."

Ansari dismissed all allegations that their moving away from RJD would strengthen BJP-led combine.

"How am I responsible for this. It is he (Laloo) who is responsible for this. Go and ask him this question. He broke the alliance," Ansari declared.

No reply came from Laloo as he refused to talk to the media.

CPI will thus be fielding anothersix candidates to add to to the three already in.

Speaking to mediapersons, Bardhan said, "We had a series of meeting with Laloo Yadav and no agreement was reached. His announcement was unilateral and he closed all the doors of negotiations by announcing that his decision was full and final. His decision was not fair. This is not justice."

Bardhan added that this move of RJD days before the polls has dealt a severe jolt to the parties fight against the communal parties. "This is sheer back-stabbing," Bardhan said.

Though going soft on RJD, Bardhan still maintained that there would be "friendly contest" in at least six seats.

He, however, could not justify that friendly contest could never come up as RJD was contesting in three seats while Congress in two amongst the announced nine.

Sources in CPI said Bardhan had to cave in to the pressure created by the state unit of the party. The state unit was of the opinion that the party could do much better, without the help of Laloo. It is a differentmatter that RJD has been getting the tacit support of CPI's 26 MLAs in the state assembly.