Addressing a media conference, CPI General Secretary A B Bardhan said the party unanimously adopted the political resolution and review report at the end of the four-day 17th Congress of the party.

The thrust of the resolution was that while the ``communal forces represented by the BJP be pushed back and routed,'' the CPI expected the Congress to lead a front of secular and democratic forces.

If the BJP-led Government collapsed due to its inherent instability, the Congress will have to play a positive role, forming an alternative government to which the CPI will extend issue-based support, Bardhan said. In the CPI's assessment, the Congress is a force that cannot be ignored.

Describing the Pachmarhi declaration of the Congress as disappointing, theCPI leader said the Congress failed on the core issue of the new economic policy enunciated by former Finance minister Manmohan Singh. Despite its agenda on poverty alleviation and rural development, the Congress failed to undertake a serious review of its economic policy.

Moreover, the Pachmarhi conclave did not opt for a review of corruption in high places, and of criminalisation of the political system, Bardhan said, and described the reference to socialistic pattern of society as mere rhetoric.

This assessment of the Congress under the circumstances, therefore, led the CPI to conclude that there can be no alliance with it, he explained.

The congress stressed the need to strengthen the party's political base, besides extend base where it was weak. Bardhan said the desired unity between the CPI and CPI (Marxist) could come about only on terms of equality, but meanwhile, the two could coordinate their activities in mass movements.

The CPI aims at building what it called a renewed United Front whichwill be a third front, excluding the Congress. In a process where there will be alignments and re-alignments, the CPI will continue to oppose ``the wrong policies of the Congress in States like West Bengal and Kerala,'' Bardhan declared.

Pointing out that, ``caste and class are social realities,'' he said while the fact remained that the Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes were deprived of their role in society, and that social justice meant empowerment of the lower caste formations, caste politics sans class content was divisive.