People's Democracy

UTTAR PRADESH

CPI(M) Holds 20th State Conference

ORGANISED at Kanpur on December 23 to 25, 2011, the 20th conference of the CPI(M)’s Uttar Pradesh state committee was attended by 252 delegates and observers. Prakash Karat, S R Pillai and Jogender Sharma attended from the party centre..

On the opening day, proceedings started with the hoisting of party flag by well-known fighter captain Laxmi Sehgal of the Indian National Army (Azad Hind Fauj). After flag hoisting, floral homage was paid to the martyrs who sacrificed their lives for the cause of the common people.

The open session of the state conference was the inaugural session which was addressed by CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat. He dealt with the international and national situations in detail and, giving an account of the ongoing economic crisis, he pointed out that the crisis has punctured the claims that capitalism is the last stage of the history of mankind. He emphasised that future belongs to socialism, not to capitalism. While exposing the ulterior designs and activities of US imperialism, he also spoke of the rising Left tide in Latin America, democratic changes in the Arab world and the move towards multipolarity. Prakash Karat made a sharp criticism of the anti-people and pro-US policies of the UPA-2 government, and emphasised that these policies have led to rampant corruption and scams, price rise, unemployment and worsening condition of the common people. The government is serving and catering to the interests of foreign and domestic big business, he accused.

The delegates session was chaired by a three-member presidium based on Hiralal Yadav, V Shant and Malti. The CPI(M) state secretary, S P Kashyap, presented the political-organisational report. Assessing the five-year rule of Ms Mayavati led BSP government, the report underlined the fact that the government has failed to live up to the expectations of the people. It has pursued anti-people and pro-capitalist policies. Corruption is rampant and the crime graph shows an upward curve. The state government has been functioning in an anti-democratic and repressive manner, causing widespread discontent and anger.

The conference approved the electoral tactical line for the coming Vidhan Sabha elections. The main contestants will be the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Samajvadi Party (SP), while the Congress and the BJP will be contesting for the third and fourth positions. However, the CPI(M) will have no electoral alliance with any of the above mentioned parties and will contest the state assembly elections either independently or with an electoral adjustment and understanding with the Left parties and organisations extending support to each other.

The conference laid down the political tactical line for the coming three years or so. To break the stagnation and make an advance, it is essential to develop living contacts and relations with the people. The achieve this objective, the CPI(M) will have to organise, lead and participate in campaigns, agitations and movements. It will have to fight for the cause of the people. Hence emphasis was put on independent activities and work among the people. At the same time, the party will do its best to foster the Left unity in the state.

The report on party organisation pinpointed the shortcomings and weaknesses of the organisation and laid down tasks to overcome them. Its emphasis was on work among the youth, women, dalits and the minorities. The need of political education for the party members was also underlined.

The conference elected a new state committee of 35 members; of these 34 places were filled and one seat remained vacant. The committee has seven new members while 27 members of the previous state committee were retained. The new state committee met immediately and re-elected S P Kashyap as state secretary. An 11 member state secretariat was also elected. There are two new faces in state secretariat while senior comrade K N Bhatt is permanent invitee to the secretariat. The state conference also elected 10 delegates and two alternate delegates to the coming party congress. All decision were taken unanimously.

The conference ended on December 25, with a public rally and meeting which was addressed by Prakash Karat, Subhasini Ali and S P Kashyap.

Credentials Report

ACCORDING to the report of the credentials committee, 217 delegates and 3 observers attended the conference, apart from 32 state committee members, thus bringing the total to 252. But the committee received the details from 229 men and 17 women comrades only. According to the outgoing state committee’s decision, 287 comrades --- 36 state committee members, 247 delegates and 4 observers --- were to take part in the conference.

All the delegates were above 25 years of age. The distribution was as below --- 26-40 years: 34, 41-60 years: 137; 61-70 years: 58; above 70: 16. M A Ansari of Ballia and Pushkar Nath Trivedi of Moradabad, each of 80 years, were the oldest delegates and Ramkrishna Mishra (26) of Sultanpur was the youngest delegate at the conference.   

While 13 delegates had joined the party before 1964, 73 joined it between 1964 and 1980, and 122 between 1981 and 2000. Those who joined the party between 2001 and 2007 numbered 25 while 8 joined in 2008 or later. No detail was received from 4 delegates. M A Ansari of Ballia was the oldest party member at the conference; he had joined the party in 1949. The latest to join the party, in 2009, were Shrilal Tomar from Agra and M Yaseen from Bijnore.

The largest number of delegates were working in the Kisan Sabha (102) while 13 were active in the Agricultural Workers Union, 14 in the DYFI, 6 in the SFI, 44 in the CITU, 17 in the AIDWA, 33 in the party organisation and 13 on other fronts.

The largest number of delegates (70) came from poor peasant families and 63 from middle peasant families. While 20 came from agricultural worker families, 3 were from rich peasant families, 35 from working class families and 53 from the middle class.  

There were 2 Central Committee members and 30 state committee members at the conference, besides 175 district committee and 3 local committee members. There were 6 branch committee secretaries and 14 ordinary members also, while 18 delegates did not furnish any detail.  

There were 42 wholetimers and 175 part-time workers at the conference. Of the delegates, 75 used to read Lok Samvad as well as Loklahar while 20 read also People’s Democracy besides these two papers. Besides, 103 read only Loklahar, 15 only Lok Samvad and 2 only People’s Democracy.

While 230 delegates were married, 14 were unmarried, and one each was a widower, divorcee or separated. Of them, 20 delegates had 1 child each, 51 had 2 children each, 56 had 3, 45 had 4, 20 had 5 and 31 had more than 5 children each. The biggest family was of M Yaseen (Bijnore) who had 10 children.

While 115 delegates had jail experience of 30 days, 45 had been in jail for up to one year and 7 for more than one year. M A Ansari of Ballia had the longest jail experience --- of 9 years. Regarding underground life, 35 had the experience of less than a year while 31 had of more than one year. Suresh Prasad of Mirzapur had had the longest underground life --- of two and a half years.

Regarding education, 71 were postgraduates and 58 were graduates, 52 had got intermediate education, 41 up to high school, 8 up to middle level and 12 up to primary level, while 24 furnished no detail.

As many as 67 delegates were taking part in a state conference for the first time, while 70 had participated in two to four state conferences; 77 in five to eight; 8 in nine to 10; and 21 had taken part in more than 10 state conferences. K N Bhatt was the lone delegate to have taken part in all the state conferences so far. Six delegates did not give any information.

While 32 delegates came to the party from the students front, 47 came from the youth front, 13 from the women’s front, 33 from the CITU, 83 from the Kisan Sabha, 13 from the agricultural workers front and 10 from other fronts. Those not providing any information numbered 17.

One of the delegates had been a member of parliament and two of the state assembly while 17 had been elected members of the panchayati raj bodies, 14 of other local bodies and 21 of cooperative societies.

As for social composition, 41 were from the scheduled castes, 22 from minority communities, 109 from other backward classes and 73 from general category. There was no delegate from the scheduled tribes while 3 did not furnish any information.

Out of the 252 delegates who participated in the state conference, only 249 submitted their forms to the credentials committee.

CPI(M) Candidates for UP Assembly Polls

The CPI(M) has issued the following list of candidates for the UP assembly polls.