The Hindu : National : Left Front to go it alone in Maharashtra

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Sep 22, 2004

National

National

Left Front to go it alone in Maharashtra

By Our Special Correspondent

MUMBAI, SEPT. 21. The Left Front has rejected the offer of four seats by the Congress and has decided to contest alone the 23 seats in the Maharashtra Assembly elections, the nominations for which are closing tomorrow.

The CPI (M) Secretary, Prabhakar Sanzgiri, and his CPI counterpart, Manohar Deshkar, said at a press conference here today that they had talks with the Congress-NCP combine till this afternoon but in vain. Mr. Sanzgiri said that the Congress-NCP did not seem to be serious about forming a secular front with a view to defeating the Shiv Sena and the BJP.

`Door open'

They said that the talks were over but "our door is open till the day of withdrawal," that is September 25. The NCP General Secretary, Gurunath Kulkarni, had said that his party was talking to the CPI (M) and the Republican Party of India (Athavale).

Mr. Sanzgiri said that an understanding with the Congress-NCP would have been possible if they had agreed to leave half of 16 seats the CPI (M) had demanded. Of the three seats that the Congress had left for the CPI (M), two — Jawhar in Thane district and Surgana in Nashik — had returned the party nominees for the past 25 years and in the third constituency of Solapur South (Urban), the CPI (M) candidate, Narsayya Adam, had polled more votes than the Congress and NCP.

While the CPI (M) is fielding 16 candidates, the CPI is nominating 17. They have left two seats for Kunabi Sena in Thane district. The Left Front would support any party or candidate in the remaining 263 seats capable of defeating the Sena-BJP alliance.

The RPI (Athavale) also turned down four seats offered by the NCP and decided to contest 100 seats on its own.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National