People's Democracy

ANDHRA PRADESH

CPI(M) Campaign Launched

M Venugopala Rao

IN the ensuing elections to the state legislative assembly and Lok Sabha, candidates of the CPI(M) had filed their nominations in ten  assembly and one Lok Sabha constituencies on March 29 and 30. Accompanied by several leaders of the Party, workers, supporters and wellwishers on a large scale, the candidates everywhere went in massive rallies, marked by ebullient enthusiasm, to the offices of the returning officers and filed their nominations.  Later, public meetings were addressed by leaders of the CPI(M), including its general secretary, Harkishan Singh Surjeet, Polit Bureau members, Sitaram Yechury and Koratala Satyanarayana,  and state secretary B V Raghavulu.

Addressing public meetings at Nakrekal and Nalgonda in Nalgonda district where Nomula Narsimhaiah and Nandyala Narsimha Reddy filed their nominations, Harkishan Singh Surjeet said the immediate task before the people was to defeat communal forces in the ensuing elections and safeguard the unity and integrity of the country. One of the important factors in helping the communal forces come to power in the earlier elections was the disunity among opposition forces, said Surjeet. He appealed to all the secular forces to work together and defeat the communal BJP and its allies in the coming elections. Explaining the efforts being made by the CPI(M) in this direction, he said the Congress has also realised and acted for this purpose.  The TDP president and chief minister, N Chandrababu Naidu, instead of opposing the communal forces, was supporting the BJP, which was igniting communal holocausts and trying to divide the people on the lines of religion and jeopardise the unity and integrity of the country, criticised Surjeet.  The BJP-led government at the centre could continue in power for five years because of the support of the TDP. By defeating the TDP in Andhra Pradesh the communal forces could be prevented from regaining power at the centre, emphasised Surjeet.  He appealed to the people to lend their solid support to the CPI(M) in order to fight back the communal forces in the elections. 

Recollecting the role of the people of Andhra in the freedom struggle and the heroic Telangana armed peasants’ struggle, Surjeet asked the people to  continue that tradition of militancy to defeat the communal forces and the TDP,  which was lending crucial support to them. The BJP had money power aplenty, but we had people’s power before which every power had to bow down, he said. The reason for successive victories of the CPI(M)-led Left Front government in West Bengal was its commitment to and endeavours in solving the basic problems of the people, Surjeet explained. He exhorted the people to elect the candidates of the CPI(M) with a knock-down majority and give an opportunity to voice their problems in the legislative bodies. Central Committee members of the CPI(M), M V Narasimha Reddy and  Mallu Swarajyam, state secretariat member  Y Venkateswara Rao, district secretary of the Party, Cherupalli Sitaramulu, chairperson of the Zilla Parishad, K Lakshmamma, former leader of the CPI(M) legislature party Narra Raghava Reddy and others addressed the public meetings.   

Addressing a massive public meeting at Miryalaguda where the CPI(M) candidate, Julakanti Ranga Reddy, filed his nomination, Sitaram Yechury said the NDA government at the centre could survive for five years because of their winning 36 out of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in Andhra Pradesh.  As a result of the anti-people policies of both the governments at the centre and in the state, the financial burdens on the people and public debt increased many fold  and starvation deaths and suicides were continuing on a large scale, said Yechury.    The NDA government was responsible for the feeling of insecurity among the minorities in the country. He made it clear that with a view to liberate the country from indebtedness and defeat the TDP-BJP combine, the CPI(M) had come to an understanding with the Congress and that it was possible to ensure defeat of the NDA government with the support of the electorate in Andhra Pradesh.  M V Narasimha Reddy said it was the responsibility of the secular and democratic forces to safeguard the country from the NDA government and the state from the TDP government and to ensure that the opposition parties had to see to  it that the their votes were not divided.  Mallu Swarajyam asked the people to open a new chapter by defeating the TDP government in the ensuing elections for all its failures in fulfilling its assurances given to the people. Former MLA of the Congress Repala Srinivas, Ch Sitaramulu, K Lakshmamma and others addressed the meeting.

Addressing a massive public meeting at Khammam organised in connection with filing of nomination from the assembly segment by Tammineni Veerabhadram, central committee member of the CPI(M),  Koratala Satyanarayana  made it clear that it was not proper to split the opposition votes in the ensuing elections which were going to decide the future of the country.  He appealed to the Congress and CPI to leave the Khammam assembly segment to the CPI(M) which continued to be its traditional stronghold. Koratala found fault with the Congress for putting up its candidates against the candidates of the CPI(M) in the latter’s traditional strongholds of Nalgonda and Mangalagiri constituencies. State secretariat member of the CPI(M) Dr Y Radha Krishna Murthy, Tammineni and other leaders addressed the meeting.