Decision 09: CPM meet to discuss poll stragegy

Saturday, March 7, 2009 at 11:03 am

The Communist Party of India (Maxist) (CPM) Central Committee will meet today (March 7) to do a thorough stock-taking of its poll prospects.

The CPI(M), which has finalised 80 Lok Sabha seats, which has decided to contest 80 seats, mostly in West Bengal and Kerala, will give emphasis to fighting against both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party in its manifesto.

The meeting takes place amidst a growing view within the party that unlike 2004, pre-poll alliances might be completely thrown out of gear after elections.

An internal confidential report of the Kerala Unit of the CPM has predicted a loss of about 13 seats for the party, while a similar report from another CPM bastion – West Bengal, has predicted a loss of seven seats for the party in the state. However, the report goes on to add that the party will consolidate itself by mid 2011.

CPM is in talks with other like-minded parties to forge electoral alliances on some more constituencies in its bid to forge an alternative against Congress and BJP. The major Left party is confident of a realignment of non-Congress, non-BJP secular political parties emerging as a third alternative and forming government.

The CPM has already forged electoral alliance with the AIADMK in Tamil Nadu and TDP in Andhra Pradesh. Although there is no formal seat sharing agreement yet, BSP also has agreed to work with the CPM to defeat the anti-secular force.

Besides its strongholds of West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura, the party has already finalised several constituencies in other states, having earlier decided to put up at least one candidate each in states like Punjab, Gujarat, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh.

As per the seat-sharing arrangement in West Bengal, the CPI(M) would contest 32 of the total 42 seats, leaving four to Revolutionary Socialist Party and three each to Forward Bloc and CPI. As before, it would put up candidates on both the seats in Tripura.

In Kerala, the party has been in the midst of a factional feud between between two stalwarts, state Secretary Pinarayi Vijayan and Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan, which has been
aggravated due to the SNC Lavalin power project scam in which the CBI has made the former an accused.

However, the CPI(M)-led LDF in the state has finalised seat sharing though differences remain with JD(S) over one.

The party has already launched campaign in the strongholds of Tripura, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu where it is going by the understanding between Karat and AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa.

The CPI(M) would contest jointly with the CPI and the CPI-ML (Liberation) in Bihar, putting up a formidable challenge to its opponents in certain parts of the state.

( This post is from an independent writer. The opinions and views expressed herein are those of the author and are not endorsed by APakistanNews.Com.)

Decision 09: CPM meet to discuss poll stragegy

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