People's Democracy

LF Resolves To Fight Civic Elections Unitedly

B Prasant

THE bi-partite meetings that Bengal Left Front chairman Biman Basu had taken with the three Left parties, the CPI, the Forward Bloc, and the RSP, certainly prepared the ground for what was a united resolve emanating out of the meeting of the Left Front at the Muzaffar Ahmad Bhavan late in the morning of May 27, 2008. The meeting paid homage at the very outset and with grief to the memory of 31 CPI(M) workers and six RSP workers martyred before, during, and after the rural polls.

Thirteen municipalities are going to the polls on June 29. The Left Front declared in the meeting its resolute intention, said Biman Basu, to fight in a strongly united manner in the municipal elections and also to consciously strive to ensure big wins for the LF. Districts level bi-partite talks would soon be well on their way towards further solidifying the unity amongst the LF constituents at the district, sub-division, block, and township levels.

The municipalities going to the polls are:

Coochbehar

• Mekhligunj

• Dalkhola

Jalpaiguri

• Balurghat

Nadia

• Chakdaha

North 24 Parganas

• Panihati

• Habra

Midnapore west

LF Resolves To Fight Civic Elections Unitedly

• Midnapore

Burdwan

• Burdwan

• Guskara

Birbhum

• Dubrajpur

Besides, by-elections in eight wards of six municipalities, spread over five districts, too, would be held. The declaration and notification from the state Left Front government in the concerned departments are awaited. The Left Front agreed that without waiting for the formal orders to be issued, political-organisational preparations for the civic polls must commence in a comprehensive manner.

FALL-OUT OF RURAL

POLLS DISCUSSED

The Left Front also discussed the recent rural polls and its political precedence as well as fall-outs. Biman Basu was of the very firm view that the �strained relations that had clouded the inter se relationship amongst the LF constituents� should be �consciously and certainly politically done away with, with the LF taking part henceforth in the political process completely solidified in its situational behaviour.�

The preparatory work for the formation of the Panchayat bodies should be done without waiting for the state LF government�s notifications and orders. The procedural unity in electing Panchayat office-bearers should be done through consensus and unity of the Left Front at all functional levels, assured Biman Basu.

On the issue of development of Bengal, the Left Front was at one in noting that the 11-point guidelines of the LF manifesto should be followed, and the calls given by the same document followed up suitably, again, with unity being given the precedence.

INDUSTRIALISATION

WOULD GO AHEAD

The process of industrialisation, a necessary process as a componential pillar of the development of the state, must go on. Nevertheless, the LF strongly iterates that as before the implementation should be gone for in a steady and cautious manner, taking the people along. In a class-divided society dominated by the bourgeois-landlord ruling classes led by the big bourgeois, said Basu, the remnants of feudal mores and formations would set up a plethora of impediments on the path of development. These must be overcome by taking the masses into confidence and convincing them of the great need for an employment-generating, pro-poor development of industries on a solid and diversifying agrarian base.

VIOLENCE TO

BE CONTAINED

The Left Front meeting also took note of the violence that had taken place during the rural polls and were still continuing in some districts even after the polls were over. The LF has appealed to all political parties to ensure that peace and amity returned to rural life and normalcy was never lost sight of for the sake of narrow political gains. The LF realises that its constituents must play a leading role in the establishment of peace and order in the disturbed pockets.