New Delhi, March 20: The Delhi state committee of CPI (M), organized a public pledge against dowry today at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi. Hundreds of people, both men and women participated. This programme marks the beginning of the party’s public campaign against dowry to be held during the course of this year.
The gathering was addressed by PMS Grewal, Secretary, Delhi State Committee of CPI (M), Anurag Saxena, Secretary, Delhi CITU, Sehba Farooqui, Secretary, Delhi Janwadi Mahila Samati, Puran Chand, Secretary, Delhi DYFI and Roshan, Secretariat member, Delhi SFI. Mohan Lal, secretariat member of the party presided.
The speakers attacked the dowry system as being based on unequal status of women in our society. Despite several stringent laws against dowry its practice has actually grown in a big way in recent years. Market driven consumerism has promoted and fuelled the practice of dowry.
Dowry has slowly gained enormous social sanction and is becoming a benchmark of social recognition and status. It is only violence related to dowry, which is viewed as a crime, not the practice, per se! Incidents of crimes related to dowry have continued to increase. The speakers sharply criticized the UPA government for diluting anti-dowry laws. The official apathy to dowry is starkly reflected in a recent study of dowry related crimes in Delhi that showed that the Delhi police recorded 90% cases of burnt women as accidents, 5% as suicide and only 5% as murder.
The speakers pointed out the havoc wrecked by dowry. Dowry has become an essential basis for the sealing of marriages. Dowry starts with the sealing of the match and continues through the engagement, wedding, birth of children and their marriages and on every important social event. Families are compelled to enter into either debt or spend their entire life-savings on dowry. Earning women today also bear the burden of dowry by shouldering the financial responsibility of their dowry for the purpose of marriage.
The increasing practice of dowry is leading to large-scale female feticide and promoting male-child preference rituals. Today the sex ratio of Delhi has dropped to only 821 females per 1000 males.
There is stiff resistance in society to self-choice marriages and giving daughters their rightful share in property that can help decrease the practice of dowry.
The speakers strongly criticized mainstream political parties like the Congress and BJP for refusing to fight against glaring forms of discrimination against women, like dowry. Such issues are often considered to be solely the concern of women’s organizations.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Home Minister's Meeting With CIA Chief
New Delhi, March 20: The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement:
The meeting of the CIA Chief with the Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram marks a new stage in Indo-US collaboration. This is the first time that an American CIA Chief has been accorded a meeting with the Union Home Minister in India. Apart from meeting his intelligence counterparts in India, the CIA Chief has been received at the political level, signalling the new status of the CIA in India.
The CIA is notorious for its interventions in the political affairs of various countries including destabilising governments considered inimical to US interests.
This is a pointer of how things have changed under the Manmohan Singh government. India is fast becoming like Pakistan where the CIA and FBI Chiefs meet with the interior minister and Prime Minister.
The role being played by US security and military agencies in the country and the manner in which the Congress-led government is promoting such ties should be a matter of serious concern for all those who wish to protect national sovereignty and the integrity of our democratic system.
The meeting of the CIA Chief with the Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram marks a new stage in Indo-US collaboration. This is the first time that an American CIA Chief has been accorded a meeting with the Union Home Minister in India. Apart from meeting his intelligence counterparts in India, the CIA Chief has been received at the political level, signalling the new status of the CIA in India.
The CIA is notorious for its interventions in the political affairs of various countries including destabilising governments considered inimical to US interests.
This is a pointer of how things have changed under the Manmohan Singh government. India is fast becoming like Pakistan where the CIA and FBI Chiefs meet with the interior minister and Prime Minister.
The role being played by US security and military agencies in the country and the manner in which the Congress-led government is promoting such ties should be a matter of serious concern for all those who wish to protect national sovereignty and the integrity of our democratic system.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Lok Sabha Polls - An Alternative Emerges: Prakash Karat
The past one week has firmly established the fact that there is a viable non-Congress, non-BJP combination emerging to fight the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections. What is popularly known as a third front became a reality when seven parties shared a common platform at the massive rally organised in Dobbspet, near Bangalore, on March 12. The leaders of the Janata Dal (Secular), the AIADMK, the Telugu Desam, the Telangana Rashtra Samiti, the Bahujan Samaj Party, the CPI(M) and the CPI declared that they would work together to defeat the Congress and the BJP and to create a new alternative.
Three days later, on March 15, nine political parties met in New Delhi. Apart from the four Left parties, the TDP, the JD (S), the AIADMK, the TRS and the Biju Janata Dal discussed how to take forward the electoral understanding and seat sharing arrangements they had arrived at in various states. In a joint statement, they declared their resolve to work together to defeat the Congress and the BJP and to form an alternative government for the progress and welfare of the people. The meeting also discussed the policy issues that need to be addressed.
On the same day, the BSP president, Ms Mayawati, released her party's election appeal and called for the defeat of the Congress and the BJP and expressed her party's determination to work for a non-Congress, non-BJP government.
All these developments in the second week of March have dramatically confirmed what the CPI(M) has been maintaining: politics in India cannot be straitjacketed into a two-party system. Although the ruling classes of our country would like politics to revolve around a choice between two political parties, both of which represent their interests, this has proved impossible in practice. Both the major all-India bourgeois parties are unable to command a mass base and the support of the people in significant parts of the country. For instance, in the two major states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, the Congress and the BJP together cannot claim to represent even one-third of the seats to the Lok Sabha. In state after state, either the Congress or the BJP represents a minority force.
This inability to achieve numbers that are anywhere near majorities in parliament has compelled them to look for allies. So, they have settled for projecting a two-front system as an alternative – a Congress-led combination and a BJP-led combination.
The emergence of a viable non-Congress, non-BJP combination has caused consternation in the Congress and the BJP camps. While the Congress called the third front as the “biggest mirage of Indian politics”, the BJP has sought to dismiss the third front as a “nautanki” (drama). The BJP has greater cause for worry because, unlike in 1999 and 2004, many of the secular regional parties are no more willing to be associated with the BJP. They are finding their place in the non-Congress, non-BJP camp. The latest partner to break with them is the BJD in Orissa.
As for the Congress party, it fielded its senior leader, Pranab Mukherjee, to attack the concept of a third front. He harped on the fact that the front has not set out any programme, or, vision for government forgetting that the Congress created its front – the UPA – only after the elections in 2004. It is also a strange argument considering that the UPA itself is not going with a common programme or manifesto to the elections. The Congress, the RJD, the NCP and the DMK are all bringing out separate manifestos. So why is Pranab Mukherjee concerned about a common programme for the parties of the third front? Why did not the Congress consider a joint programme with its elusive ally, the Samajwadi Party? He even made the extraordinary claim that the parties of the third front were not even fighting enough seats to get a majority in the House. This is, of course, utterly inaccurate. The Left alone is fighting 150 seats and if the parties with which they have seat sharing arrangements or election alliances are taken into account, then their number is more than 50 per cent of the seats in parliament. If the seats contested by the BSP are taken into account, then the combine is fighting far more seats than the Congress party.
A Congress spokesperson has also charged that the formation of the third front will help the communal forces by dividing the secular votes. The fact is that the emergence of the alliance of the Left and the secular regional parties has struck a body blow to the electoral ambitions of the BJP. The BJP has been left with not a single ally in states like Andhra Pradesh, Tamilnadu and Orissa. The propagation of a two-party system by the Congress only helps the BJP instead of weakening it.
Both the Congress and the BJP are on shaky ground when they termed the third front as an unstable and unviable alliance. The reality is that both the UPA and the NDA are not durable alliances and that their fragility has come to the fore in the recent period. The Congress, after its Working Committee meeting in January, declared that it has no national level alliance and that it is going in for state level alliances only. This has undermined the very basis of the UPA. In turn, it has freed the UPA allies to look for different electoral partners in various states. Some of the non-Congress partners of the UPA are signalling that alignments will change according to the post-poll situation. The NCP president Sharad Pawar has, unlike the Congress and the BJP, stated that the third front cannot be written off. He has further stated that his party is not a bonded labourer of anyone. As for the NDA, it suffered a major blow when the BJD decided to break with it. Even the Asom Gana Parishad, which has entered into a seat adjustment with the BJP, has declared that it is not part of the NDA.
Although the Congress seems to have gained confidence after seeing the disarray in the BJP and its alliance, it is unwilling to recognise what is happening to the people and the country. One single instance should illustrate this point. The Congress party and the government are happy to claim that inflation is going down steadily. The inflation rate of the Wholesale Price Index is now below 4 per cent. But the prices of food items have increased sharply. According to the Price Monitoring Cell of the Department of Consumer Affairs, there has been a big surge in the prices of food items such as rice, tur, onions, sugar and tea. The wholesale price food index registered 7.5 per cent inflation for the week ending February 28. This price rise at the retail level increased manifold. According to these figures, the price of rice in Delhi rose by 22 per cent between March 2008 and March 2009; sugar went up by 47 per cent, tur by 31 per cent and onion by a whopping 111 per cent.
While the government takes satisfaction in proclaiming that the growth rate has slowed down only slightly, the reality is that lakhs of jobs are being lost due to the global recession and the economic crisis.
The Congress rulers are ignoring the entire agrarian crisis, price rise, unemployment and the falling living standards of the people. This is going to cost them heavily.
When the time of reckoning comes, the people have the choice to reject both the Congress and the BJP, which has similar economic policies, and to look for an alternative. The Left parties have set out a full-fledged alternative policy platform. The CPI(M) is working to see that the parties that have rallied around the banner of a third front come together on a common platform for pro-people economic policies, a firm defence of secularism, strengthening federalism and for an independent foreign policy. Such a platform offers a clear alternative choice for the people. In the coming days, during the election campaign, these alternative policies will be presented before the people.
(March 18, 2009)
Three days later, on March 15, nine political parties met in New Delhi. Apart from the four Left parties, the TDP, the JD (S), the AIADMK, the TRS and the Biju Janata Dal discussed how to take forward the electoral understanding and seat sharing arrangements they had arrived at in various states. In a joint statement, they declared their resolve to work together to defeat the Congress and the BJP and to form an alternative government for the progress and welfare of the people. The meeting also discussed the policy issues that need to be addressed.
On the same day, the BSP president, Ms Mayawati, released her party's election appeal and called for the defeat of the Congress and the BJP and expressed her party's determination to work for a non-Congress, non-BJP government.
All these developments in the second week of March have dramatically confirmed what the CPI(M) has been maintaining: politics in India cannot be straitjacketed into a two-party system. Although the ruling classes of our country would like politics to revolve around a choice between two political parties, both of which represent their interests, this has proved impossible in practice. Both the major all-India bourgeois parties are unable to command a mass base and the support of the people in significant parts of the country. For instance, in the two major states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, the Congress and the BJP together cannot claim to represent even one-third of the seats to the Lok Sabha. In state after state, either the Congress or the BJP represents a minority force.
This inability to achieve numbers that are anywhere near majorities in parliament has compelled them to look for allies. So, they have settled for projecting a two-front system as an alternative – a Congress-led combination and a BJP-led combination.
The emergence of a viable non-Congress, non-BJP combination has caused consternation in the Congress and the BJP camps. While the Congress called the third front as the “biggest mirage of Indian politics”, the BJP has sought to dismiss the third front as a “nautanki” (drama). The BJP has greater cause for worry because, unlike in 1999 and 2004, many of the secular regional parties are no more willing to be associated with the BJP. They are finding their place in the non-Congress, non-BJP camp. The latest partner to break with them is the BJD in Orissa.
As for the Congress party, it fielded its senior leader, Pranab Mukherjee, to attack the concept of a third front. He harped on the fact that the front has not set out any programme, or, vision for government forgetting that the Congress created its front – the UPA – only after the elections in 2004. It is also a strange argument considering that the UPA itself is not going with a common programme or manifesto to the elections. The Congress, the RJD, the NCP and the DMK are all bringing out separate manifestos. So why is Pranab Mukherjee concerned about a common programme for the parties of the third front? Why did not the Congress consider a joint programme with its elusive ally, the Samajwadi Party? He even made the extraordinary claim that the parties of the third front were not even fighting enough seats to get a majority in the House. This is, of course, utterly inaccurate. The Left alone is fighting 150 seats and if the parties with which they have seat sharing arrangements or election alliances are taken into account, then their number is more than 50 per cent of the seats in parliament. If the seats contested by the BSP are taken into account, then the combine is fighting far more seats than the Congress party.
A Congress spokesperson has also charged that the formation of the third front will help the communal forces by dividing the secular votes. The fact is that the emergence of the alliance of the Left and the secular regional parties has struck a body blow to the electoral ambitions of the BJP. The BJP has been left with not a single ally in states like Andhra Pradesh, Tamilnadu and Orissa. The propagation of a two-party system by the Congress only helps the BJP instead of weakening it.
Both the Congress and the BJP are on shaky ground when they termed the third front as an unstable and unviable alliance. The reality is that both the UPA and the NDA are not durable alliances and that their fragility has come to the fore in the recent period. The Congress, after its Working Committee meeting in January, declared that it has no national level alliance and that it is going in for state level alliances only. This has undermined the very basis of the UPA. In turn, it has freed the UPA allies to look for different electoral partners in various states. Some of the non-Congress partners of the UPA are signalling that alignments will change according to the post-poll situation. The NCP president Sharad Pawar has, unlike the Congress and the BJP, stated that the third front cannot be written off. He has further stated that his party is not a bonded labourer of anyone. As for the NDA, it suffered a major blow when the BJD decided to break with it. Even the Asom Gana Parishad, which has entered into a seat adjustment with the BJP, has declared that it is not part of the NDA.
Although the Congress seems to have gained confidence after seeing the disarray in the BJP and its alliance, it is unwilling to recognise what is happening to the people and the country. One single instance should illustrate this point. The Congress party and the government are happy to claim that inflation is going down steadily. The inflation rate of the Wholesale Price Index is now below 4 per cent. But the prices of food items have increased sharply. According to the Price Monitoring Cell of the Department of Consumer Affairs, there has been a big surge in the prices of food items such as rice, tur, onions, sugar and tea. The wholesale price food index registered 7.5 per cent inflation for the week ending February 28. This price rise at the retail level increased manifold. According to these figures, the price of rice in Delhi rose by 22 per cent between March 2008 and March 2009; sugar went up by 47 per cent, tur by 31 per cent and onion by a whopping 111 per cent.
While the government takes satisfaction in proclaiming that the growth rate has slowed down only slightly, the reality is that lakhs of jobs are being lost due to the global recession and the economic crisis.
The Congress rulers are ignoring the entire agrarian crisis, price rise, unemployment and the falling living standards of the people. This is going to cost them heavily.
When the time of reckoning comes, the people have the choice to reject both the Congress and the BJP, which has similar economic policies, and to look for an alternative. The Left parties have set out a full-fledged alternative policy platform. The CPI(M) is working to see that the parties that have rallied around the banner of a third front come together on a common platform for pro-people economic policies, a firm defence of secularism, strengthening federalism and for an independent foreign policy. Such a platform offers a clear alternative choice for the people. In the coming days, during the election campaign, these alternative policies will be presented before the people.
(March 18, 2009)
Land Reforms in West Bengal
Land Reforms: West Bengal marches ahead
Kolkata March 18th –Out of the One crore 35 lakh agricultural land in the state West Bengal more than 84% is in the hands of small and marginal farmers of the state while the all India average lies at a dismal 43%.Out of the extra ceiling land which has been distributed more than 22% of that land has been in West Bengal. More than 55% of the land patta distribution has occurred in West Bengal. In India, a total of 55 lakh 74thousand 2 hundred and six families have received Land Patta out of which 30lakh families are from this state.
The state has also done exemplary work on gender equality. West Bengal has been a pioneer in the case of Joint Patta distribution i.e. Land deed registered both on husband and wife’s name. A total of 6lakh’s 3 thousand 987 families has received joint patta. According to Central government statistics about 53.2 % families in India who have benefitted from the land reforms inn the country hails from West Bengal. West Bengal has also taken exemplary measures when it comes to agricultural loans. In 1975-76 200 crores were distributed as agricultural loans in the state. The same figure runs to about 2969.82 crores in the year 2005-2006. This feat has been accompanied mainly by empowering the various co-operative and rural development banks in the state of West Bengal as the Nationalised banks has played a negative role in giving agricultural loans to the poor people of the state. This effort can be safely said to be in stark contrast to the reality where in the other states of India about one farmer per 30seconds commits suicide.
In the three consecutive years from 2005-2006 to 2008-2009 the total amount of land acquired by the Government 10207 acres while in the same time about 29 thousand 937 acres has been distributed to the landless in the state . In all the ratio of distribution to land acquired for industrialisation purpose to land acquired as been a staggering 262%.In the fiscal year 2007- 2008 ,West Bengal government set a target to vest about 5000 acres of ceiling excess land in the state . That year also, the target has been reached as a total of about 5462 acres of land being vested by the government .However after the opposition Trinamool ruled Zilla Parisahad has managed to form the board at South 24 Parganas and East Midnapore this process has received a serious jolt there. In the year 2005-2006 about 2322 acres of land was acquired while in the next year i.e. 2006-2007 about 4135 acres of land was acquired. In the same period the figure of land distributed in the state runs at 10800 acres and 10953 acres respectively.
The tribals have also been benefitted from the land reforms. While the people from Tribal ethnicity constitutes about 5.5% of West Bengal’s population about 19.3 % of the beneficiaries who received land deed(patta) of the Land reform process are tribals while 11% of the total bargadars (share Croppers) are tribals. Another interesting aspect of the land reform process has been that 25% of the total beneficiaries of the land reform process are from the minorities’ community. The share of land cultivated by the Muslims in West Bengal is 25.6%, which is the second highest in the country (second only to Jammu and Kashmir where the share is 30.3%). About 56% of the beneficiaries of the Land reform process are Dalits and adivasis.
Strengthening the notion that land distribution is a continious process the state even had distributed land Patta of about 469 acres in Bankura in the current fiscal year, to about 3500 families out of which 1062 were from schedule castes, 736 tribals and 178 from the minorities’ community. It should be kept in mind that programme was held braving the onslaughts of the Congress Trinamool and Maoist combine where they threatened to stall that initiative of the state government by creating planned anarchy and disturbance in the state specially in the western parts of the state i.e. in the districts of West Midnapore ,Bankura and Purulia.
Kolkata March 18th –Out of the One crore 35 lakh agricultural land in the state West Bengal more than 84% is in the hands of small and marginal farmers of the state while the all India average lies at a dismal 43%.Out of the extra ceiling land which has been distributed more than 22% of that land has been in West Bengal. More than 55% of the land patta distribution has occurred in West Bengal. In India, a total of 55 lakh 74thousand 2 hundred and six families have received Land Patta out of which 30lakh families are from this state.
The state has also done exemplary work on gender equality. West Bengal has been a pioneer in the case of Joint Patta distribution i.e. Land deed registered both on husband and wife’s name. A total of 6lakh’s 3 thousand 987 families has received joint patta. According to Central government statistics about 53.2 % families in India who have benefitted from the land reforms inn the country hails from West Bengal. West Bengal has also taken exemplary measures when it comes to agricultural loans. In 1975-76 200 crores were distributed as agricultural loans in the state. The same figure runs to about 2969.82 crores in the year 2005-2006. This feat has been accompanied mainly by empowering the various co-operative and rural development banks in the state of West Bengal as the Nationalised banks has played a negative role in giving agricultural loans to the poor people of the state. This effort can be safely said to be in stark contrast to the reality where in the other states of India about one farmer per 30seconds commits suicide.
In the three consecutive years from 2005-2006 to 2008-2009 the total amount of land acquired by the Government 10207 acres while in the same time about 29 thousand 937 acres has been distributed to the landless in the state . In all the ratio of distribution to land acquired for industrialisation purpose to land acquired as been a staggering 262%.In the fiscal year 2007- 2008 ,West Bengal government set a target to vest about 5000 acres of ceiling excess land in the state . That year also, the target has been reached as a total of about 5462 acres of land being vested by the government .However after the opposition Trinamool ruled Zilla Parisahad has managed to form the board at South 24 Parganas and East Midnapore this process has received a serious jolt there. In the year 2005-2006 about 2322 acres of land was acquired while in the next year i.e. 2006-2007 about 4135 acres of land was acquired. In the same period the figure of land distributed in the state runs at 10800 acres and 10953 acres respectively.
The tribals have also been benefitted from the land reforms. While the people from Tribal ethnicity constitutes about 5.5% of West Bengal’s population about 19.3 % of the beneficiaries who received land deed(patta) of the Land reform process are tribals while 11% of the total bargadars (share Croppers) are tribals. Another interesting aspect of the land reform process has been that 25% of the total beneficiaries of the land reform process are from the minorities’ community. The share of land cultivated by the Muslims in West Bengal is 25.6%, which is the second highest in the country (second only to Jammu and Kashmir where the share is 30.3%). About 56% of the beneficiaries of the Land reform process are Dalits and adivasis.
Strengthening the notion that land distribution is a continious process the state even had distributed land Patta of about 469 acres in Bankura in the current fiscal year, to about 3500 families out of which 1062 were from schedule castes, 736 tribals and 178 from the minorities’ community. It should be kept in mind that programme was held braving the onslaughts of the Congress Trinamool and Maoist combine where they threatened to stall that initiative of the state government by creating planned anarchy and disturbance in the state specially in the western parts of the state i.e. in the districts of West Midnapore ,Bankura and Purulia.
Binding over the agitators for a win
Agitation is equivalent to Rowdism opines the Congress Government.
Hyderabad, 18th March - Congress Government in Andhra Pradesh is blatantly adopting undemocratic methods against CPI(M) and other allied party workers who fought over people’s issues by booking under binding over cases. This enables the Govt. to keep the CPI(M) workers behind bars two days before polls. It is also treating the agitators as criminals. Bind-over cases are supposed to be invoked against the anti-social elements and criminals. It is intimidating the CPI(M) workers with opening of Rowdy-sheets against them. It has filed cases against the leaders of land and house –site struggles. It reminds the Dictatorial rule of Nizams. During their five year term, Congress Government booked severe cases against the protesting public several times. CPI(M) initiated and lead various campaigns demanding the Government for distribution of barren and unutilised Government lands, including the lands in the hands of corporates and landlords. After a prolonged series of protests, Congress Government at last agreed for distribution of house sites and cultivable lands to the poor. In different districts of the state, many of the CPI(M) leaders were put in jails under binding over cases. For example, 42 innocent people in the District of Khammam were binded over. All the cases since 2004 were reopened for the purpose of binding over the agitators. 600 members in Warangal from CPI(M), TDP, TRS and PRP were binded over. At the same time, the convicts belonging to the ruling Congress party involved in the cases of robbery, harassments and Black-mailing were given a royal treatment. Undoubtedly, these actions of the Government suggests that congress wants to win in the coming elections at any cost and by any means.
Hyderabad, 18th March - Congress Government in Andhra Pradesh is blatantly adopting undemocratic methods against CPI(M) and other allied party workers who fought over people’s issues by booking under binding over cases. This enables the Govt. to keep the CPI(M) workers behind bars two days before polls. It is also treating the agitators as criminals. Bind-over cases are supposed to be invoked against the anti-social elements and criminals. It is intimidating the CPI(M) workers with opening of Rowdy-sheets against them. It has filed cases against the leaders of land and house –site struggles. It reminds the Dictatorial rule of Nizams. During their five year term, Congress Government booked severe cases against the protesting public several times. CPI(M) initiated and lead various campaigns demanding the Government for distribution of barren and unutilised Government lands, including the lands in the hands of corporates and landlords. After a prolonged series of protests, Congress Government at last agreed for distribution of house sites and cultivable lands to the poor. In different districts of the state, many of the CPI(M) leaders were put in jails under binding over cases. For example, 42 innocent people in the District of Khammam were binded over. All the cases since 2004 were reopened for the purpose of binding over the agitators. 600 members in Warangal from CPI(M), TDP, TRS and PRP were binded over. At the same time, the convicts belonging to the ruling Congress party involved in the cases of robbery, harassments and Black-mailing were given a royal treatment. Undoubtedly, these actions of the Government suggests that congress wants to win in the coming elections at any cost and by any means.
Left Front Starts campaigning for the elections in Tripura
By the Agartala Correspondent, 19th March
The Left Front in Tripura has started its election campaign well ahead of others for the ensuing Loksabha elections.Voting for the 2 parliamentary constituencies in Tripura will be held on 23rd April.This time around 21 lacs of electorates will be exercising their democratic right. Some opposition parties have also announced the names of their candidates,but they have not been able to gear up their campaign till date.Congress has given tickets to Sudip Ray Barman and D.C Hrankhal for the West and East Tripura constituencies respectively. Ray barman , a sitting MLA from Agartala assembly constituency is the son of PCC president Samir Barman. Quite obviously his selection as the candidate has not gone too well with rival Birjit Sinha faction of Congress.The signs of dissatisfaction among the rival faction came became public in the press conference in PCC office itself where the names of the candidates were announced. None of the MLAs belonging to the rival faction turned up in the meeting.
BJP has also announced their list of candidates for the polls.Trinamul Congress is also fielding their candidates.The state unit chief of the party said they were fighting for their existence and were opposed to both Left Front and Congress.He however couldnot justify as why in spite of forging an alliance with Congress in West bengal they were following a different strategy in Tripura.
The Left Front meanwhile has started its electoral campaign fullfledgedly all over the state.Booth offices have been opened in almost all the places. The campaign has gathered more momentum after the release of the election manifesto.On Wednesday left font convenor and candidate for the West Tripura constituency,Khagen Das addressed 8 meetings at in a single day in the northern part ofSadar(Agartala).In all the meetingstribal and nontribal peoples were present in a good number.In the meetings Das said neither the Congress nor the BJP will be able to form government at the centre this time.Prospect is bright for the for the formation of a non congress secular Govenment.He appealed to the masses to elect the LF candidates from both the seats by a huge margin and strengthen the prospect of this pro people alternative.
The Left Front in Tripura has started its election campaign well ahead of others for the ensuing Loksabha elections.Voting for the 2 parliamentary constituencies in Tripura will be held on 23rd April.This time around 21 lacs of electorates will be exercising their democratic right. Some opposition parties have also announced the names of their candidates,but they have not been able to gear up their campaign till date.Congress has given tickets to Sudip Ray Barman and D.C Hrankhal for the West and East Tripura constituencies respectively. Ray barman , a sitting MLA from Agartala assembly constituency is the son of PCC president Samir Barman. Quite obviously his selection as the candidate has not gone too well with rival Birjit Sinha faction of Congress.The signs of dissatisfaction among the rival faction came became public in the press conference in PCC office itself where the names of the candidates were announced. None of the MLAs belonging to the rival faction turned up in the meeting.
BJP has also announced their list of candidates for the polls.Trinamul Congress is also fielding their candidates.The state unit chief of the party said they were fighting for their existence and were opposed to both Left Front and Congress.He however couldnot justify as why in spite of forging an alliance with Congress in West bengal they were following a different strategy in Tripura.
The Left Front meanwhile has started its electoral campaign fullfledgedly all over the state.Booth offices have been opened in almost all the places. The campaign has gathered more momentum after the release of the election manifesto.On Wednesday left font convenor and candidate for the West Tripura constituency,Khagen Das addressed 8 meetings at in a single day in the northern part ofSadar(Agartala).In all the meetingstribal and nontribal peoples were present in a good number.In the meetings Das said neither the Congress nor the BJP will be able to form government at the centre this time.Prospect is bright for the for the formation of a non congress secular Govenment.He appealed to the masses to elect the LF candidates from both the seats by a huge margin and strengthen the prospect of this pro people alternative.
LDF finalises seat sharing, CPIM in 14 seats, CPI 4
Thiruvananthapuram: CPIM led Left Democratic Front in Kerala has completed its seat sharing today and announced candidates for all the 20 constituencies. According to the formula, the CPIM will contest in 14 seats, CPI in 4 and Kerala Congress (joseph) in one. One seat, Ponnani, has been allotted to an independent. The Kerala Congress has been nominated sitting MP, Francis George, in Idukky.
According to Vaikom Vishwan, convener of the LDF, Janata Dal, a constituent of the front, refused to accept Wayanad seat and insisted on Kozhikode seat, where it contested in 2004. In view of the delimitation of constituencies, the CPIM has asked the Janata Dal to contest in Wayanad, instead of Kozhikode. Since, they refused to accept the proposal, Wayanad has been allotted to the CPI. The CPIM has decided to field Ad. M Rahmathulla in Wayanad. The CPIM has decided to put up Advocate Mohamed Riyaz in Kozhikode, a stronghold of the party. Mohamed Riyaz, a novise in electoral battle, is the president of the DYFI in Kozhikode district.
The LDF state committee, which met here this evening, has decided to field Dr. Hussain Randathani, an academic, in Ponnani against Mulsim League's Hussain Randathani. The LDF hopes that it will be able to wrest the seat from the Muslim League by fielding a commonly acceptable independent.
The JD had declared that it would contest in Kozhikode on its own. However, Vaikom Viswan told newsmen here that JD will take a decision favourable to the LDF on 22nd in its State Council. Viswan said the JD would continue to be a partner of the LDF. The LDF hopes that the JD would not field its candidate in Kozhikode to express its protest against 'denial' of Kozhikode seat. The JD had withdrawn its nominee Mathew T Thomas from the Cabinet to express its displeasure. However, the Chief Minister is yet to accept the resignation of Mathew T Thomas, who held Transport portfolio. The LDF has requested the Janata Dal to reconsider its decision to pull down its nominee from the Cabinet. Janata Dal state council to be held on March 22nd would take a decision to this effect.
According to Vaikom Vishwan, convener of the LDF, Janata Dal, a constituent of the front, refused to accept Wayanad seat and insisted on Kozhikode seat, where it contested in 2004. In view of the delimitation of constituencies, the CPIM has asked the Janata Dal to contest in Wayanad, instead of Kozhikode. Since, they refused to accept the proposal, Wayanad has been allotted to the CPI. The CPIM has decided to field Ad. M Rahmathulla in Wayanad. The CPIM has decided to put up Advocate Mohamed Riyaz in Kozhikode, a stronghold of the party. Mohamed Riyaz, a novise in electoral battle, is the president of the DYFI in Kozhikode district.
The LDF state committee, which met here this evening, has decided to field Dr. Hussain Randathani, an academic, in Ponnani against Mulsim League's Hussain Randathani. The LDF hopes that it will be able to wrest the seat from the Muslim League by fielding a commonly acceptable independent.
The JD had declared that it would contest in Kozhikode on its own. However, Vaikom Viswan told newsmen here that JD will take a decision favourable to the LDF on 22nd in its State Council. Viswan said the JD would continue to be a partner of the LDF. The LDF hopes that the JD would not field its candidate in Kozhikode to express its protest against 'denial' of Kozhikode seat. The JD had withdrawn its nominee Mathew T Thomas from the Cabinet to express its displeasure. However, the Chief Minister is yet to accept the resignation of Mathew T Thomas, who held Transport portfolio. The LDF has requested the Janata Dal to reconsider its decision to pull down its nominee from the Cabinet. Janata Dal state council to be held on March 22nd would take a decision to this effect.
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