People's Democracy

 Andhra: CPI(M) Will Work To Defeat TDP-BJP

BRIEFING the media at Muzaffar Ahmad Bhavan in Kolkata on November 15 afternoon, following the conclusion of the two-day CPI(M) Central Committee meeting, the Party’s Polit Bureau member Prakash Karat said the aim of the CPI(M)’s election campaign in Andhra Pradesh would be to seek the maximum possible mobilisation of the masses with the aim of ensuring a comprehensive defeat of the BJP-TDP combine in the assembly polls there. CPI(M) Polit Bureau members Sitaram Yechury and Anil Biswas were also present at the briefing.

Prakash Karat said the CPI(M) Central Committee meeting was convened to take stock of the political situation in the aftermath of the TDP government’s decision to go in for a snap poll.

Karat made it amply clear that the CPI(M) would take its own message and in a comprehensive manner to the people of Andhra Pradesh on the ruinous policies that the TDP government had adopted in Andhra Pradesh as the running mate of the BJP.

Karat wondered why the TDP had chosen to advance the dates of the assembly polls in Andhra Pradesh and said that perhaps, as on other occasions, Chandrababu Naidu had decided to consult the World Bank or perhaps even his team of astrologers on this issue.

Flaying the anti-people policies of the TDP government, Prakash Karat said the TDP was a staunch supporter of the BJP and was always eager to preach and implement the policies of liberalisation, globalisation and privatisation.  As the Hyderabad Party congress of the CPI(M) had made it clear, the CPI(M) would go all-out to oppose and defeat these policies being adhered to by the BJP and its allies.

Andhra Pradesh was an important state, said Karat, adding that a strong and historical presence and tradition of the Communist Party continues there among the people. 

The Andhra Pradesh state unit of the CPI(M) would be asked to draw up a list of candidates and there would be consultation with the CPI in the state. The CPI(M) will contest the seats where it has an effective presence, the CPI(M) leader pointed out.

Responding to questions from the media, Prakash Karat made it clear that the CPI(M) did consider the Congress a secular party, but a party that was often found making compromises with the forces of communalism. 

Karat said that just as the CPI(M) will, where it was not in the fray, extend support to the candidates of secular parties that have the strongest chance of defeating the TDP-BJP alliance, so will it be exhorting upon all secular and democratic forces to support the CPI(M) candidates in seats the latter would contest.

In putting up candidates, the task before the CPI(M) will be to conduct a sweeping campaign across Andhra Pradesh and to carry the independent message of the CPI(M) to the masses on the anti-people policies of the TDP-BJP alliance.

Answering a query from the media, Prakash Karat said the CPI(M) has already decided to contest eighteen seats in Rajasthan, nine seats in Madhya Pradesh, five seats in Chhattisgarh and three seats in Delhi. (INN)