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CPI to contest 50 seats

NEW DELHI: The Communist Party of India on Sunday announced it would contest 50 seats, declaring the first list containing 33 candidates even as negotiations continued in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh for the coming Lok Sabha elections.

Briefing journalists at the conclusion of the party’s two-day national executive, general secretary A.B. Bardhan said here the CPI would come out with its own manifesto while the Left parties — the CPI, the CPI (M), the AIFB and the RSP — would issue a common appeal to the electorate.

The national executive reiterated that the line of building a non-Congress and non-Bharatiya Janata Party alternative at the national level would be pursued.

He said the Left parties reached a poll understanding with the All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in Tamil Nadu, the Telugu Desam Party and the Telangana Rashtra Samiti in Andhra Pradesh and the Janata Dal (Secular) in Karnataka.

On the reported feelers by the AIADMK to the Congress and the CPI’s stand point in the wake of the development, Mr. Bardhan said so far as the Left parties were concerned, they had an understating with the AIADMK.

“Her [Ms. J. Jayalalithaa’s] statement creates a problem for the Congress and the United Progressive Alliance,” he said. As for equations with Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party, he said the BSP did not believe in having pre-poll alliances and hoped it would be with the third alternative after the elections.

Asked about the stand on the statement of Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Lalu Prasad that the Left would have to support the Congress-led alliance after the elections, Mr. Bardhan said: “The choice will be made by the Left parties and not by a statement of Mr. Lalu Prasad.”

Among others, the party announced the candidature of its national secretary Atul Kumar Anjan (Ghosi in Uttar Pradesh), re-nominated Bhuvaneshwar Prasad Mehta (Hazaribagh-Jharkhand), former MPs Dhrupad Borghain (Jorhat-Assam) and Shatrughan Prasad Singh (Begusarai).

It also announced that candidates for the three Lok Sabha seats of Ghatal, Midnapur and Bashirhat will be declared by the Left Front. Currently Prabodh Panda represents Midnaur and Ajay Chakraborty from Bashirhat. Gurudas Dasgupta’s Panskura has now become Ghatal following delimitation.

The national executive adopted two resolutions — demanding a judicial probe into the police-lawyers clashes inside the Madras High Court premises and scrapping of SC/ST Reservation (Amendment) Bill or amending it comprehensively.

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