The support for Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati’s prime ministerial candidature at the time of 2009 general elections has come back to haunt the Communist Party of India (Marxist) during the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections early next year.
CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat, in charge of the Uttar Pradesh unit of his party, joined hands with Ms Mayawati to form a third front in 2009.
Interestingly, it will be under the direct guidance of the CPI(M) general secretary that the party will now join hands with other Left parties to contest at least 50 seats against the BSP in the state.
The CPI(M) alone is expected to contest around 15 seats in Bulandshahr, Etah and Allahabad districts, besides others.
“Despite our agitation against land acquisition in Bhatta-Parsaul area, the party will not put up a candidate in the constituency because we are not very strong there,” president of the CPI(M) peasants wing, the All-India Kisan Sabha, and politburo member S. Ramachandran Pillai told this newspaper.
As far as the final tally of seats to be contested is concerned, the party is expected to take a decision in a day or two.
Mr Karat had been tasked by his party to create a base in the Hindi heartland or the cowbelt.
But the stark reality, as pointed out by local cadres, is that the party cannot even find enough teachers for its educational “classes” being held to give an insight into the party’s history and ideology to the party workers due to a lack of strong cadre base.
Mr Karat’s failed efforts to project a credible third front at the national level forced the party to take a u-turn and agitate against Ms Mayawati’s land acquisition policies more recently during the farmers’ protests in Bhatta-Parsaul.
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Punjab: little time left for parties
Tanveer Thakur
Chandigarh, Dec. 25
The announcement of Assembly elections on January 30 has put political parties of Punjab in fast-forward mode. The announcement of the election has come at least a fortnight early as per the calculations of the parties. Now the election itinerary has left political parties with little time to build up the campaigning momentum. The last date of nominations and withdrawals — January 12 and 16 respectively — has left parties with less than two weeks for campaigning.
Already sensing the dearth of time for campaigning, the Congress has on Sunday rescheduled its campaigning programme. However, the party will announce the fresh schedule for its main political rallies in the state only after the party candidates are announced.
The rallies which were rescheduled by the Congress were earlier to be held at Faridkot, Jalandhar Cant, Sahnewal, Jalandhar and Amritsar.
Even though the state is witnessing an intense cold wave, the poll announcement has soared the political temperatures.