People's Democracy

KARNATAKA

CPI(M) to Contest 16 Assembly Seats

THROUGH a press release issued on April 6, the Karnataka state unit of the CPI(M) has said it would be contesting in 16 of the assembly constituencies in the state. The party has finalised the list of the candidates for these seats. 

The name of the candidates and the constituencies where the CPI(M) will be contesting are as below:

While noting that the infighting within the ruling BJP had crippled the outgoing government, the CPI(M) statement, issued by its state secretariat member G Nagaraj, also noted that the outgoing state assembly had many crorepati members who naturally neglected the common man’s interest and ignored his plight. Moreover, in their favour, the BJP government too perpetrated corruption scams of huge magnitude, allowing them to loot the state’s natural resources, such as iron ore, with impunity. Farmers too were robbed of their agricultural lands.

However, the CPI(M) said, the Congress too has miserably failed to act as a responsible and credible opposition party, as it was itself involved in massive corruption scams at the centre and has thus lost its moral authority to question the corruption of the state government. For example, if iron ore was looted here in Karnataka, coal was being looted elsewhere in the country. On the other hand, the greed of the global investors and the ruling class politicians for land led to the takeover of agricultural land at throwaway prices from farmers in the state too, as in other parts of the country. This has, among other things, sent the rents in towns and cities sky-rocketing.

Thanks to the Congress as well as the BJP, common people have been saddled with huge rises in the cost of living, the public distribution system has been paralysed, levels of wages are being lowered through the contract system and outsourcing of employment, the permanent employment system is being destroyed, and over two lakh vacant government positions are not being filled up. There is no expansion of the employment base and unemployment is increasing. The state as well as the union government has been insensitive to the growing atrocities on women. In Karnataka, in addition, there have been systematic attacks on the minority Christians and Muslims, moral policing, and saffronisation of education. It is for all these reasons that the ruling BJP needs to be thrown out, the CPI(M) said.

However, while the presently ruling BJP has to be removed from power, this does not mean that the Congress is to be considered as its alternative. We have to work for the defeat of both the Congress and the BJP, the CPI(M) statement stressed. Through mass movements on people’s issues, the Left and other progressive parties have been tirelessly and continuously working to get the problems of the people redressed, and the CPI(M) has urged the voters of Karnataka to cast their vote for the CPI(M) and ensure victory to its candidates.