Communist Party of India has decided to extend support to Congress in the upcoming Karnataka Assembly polls on 215 constituencies, the party said in a statement on Sunday.

The CPI has already fielded seven candidates for the elections, however, the party has decided to support the Congress candidates on the rest of the constituencies in the interest of “safeguarding the democratic and constitutional values.

“The BP state government has proved to be a corrupt and morally reprehensible administration interested only in sowing the seeds of communal disharmony while ignoring the real issues of unprecedented price rise, unemployment, lack of education and health facilities. Therefore, it is our duty to defeat the BJP in the upcoming assembly elections. It is also important to avoid the possibility of a hung assembly under the conditions of which the money and muscle power through the IT and ED departments will be deployed for horse trading once again by the BJP. In the interests of safeguarding democratic and constitutional values, the CPI has resolved the following,” the statement said.

The constituencies where the CPI has fielded its candidates include Mudigere, Aland, Jewargi, Kudlagi, KGF, Sim and Madikeri.

“The CPI supports the candidate of the Sarvodaya Karnataka Party in Melukote and the CPI(M) candidate in Bagepalli. In the rest of the 215 assembly constituencies, the CPI will support the Congress,” the statement said.

Congress has fielded candidates on all 224 Assembly segments of the state.

Karnataka will go to Assembly polls on May 10 and the counting of votes will be done on May 13.