Bhubaneswar, Feb. 2 : Communist Party of India General Secretary A. B. Bardhan today said that his party is keen about forming a "third alternative" to neutralise the bipolar political arrangement espoused by both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party.

"There are attempts by both Congress and BJP to make it a bipolar political system which, in our view, is unhealthy. There are so many regional parties in India," Bardhan told reporters here.

"A third alternative is all the more necessary since Congress and BJP, which ruled the country alternatively, have failed to safeguard the interests of the people, whose conditions have deteriorated," Bardhan added.

To a query, the CPI leader said his party is only supporting the UPA government at Centre from outside on the basis of a Common Minimum Programme (CMP) and whenever the government deviated from CMP, CPI would oppose it.

Ridiculing Centre's claim about 9.6 per cent economic growth, he said it was not reflected in the condition and living standards of the majority of people. On the contrary, a government committee report suggested that at least 78 per cent of people, or 86.3 crore in number, lived by just Rs 20 per day, he claimed. (ANI)