WEST BENGAL

With Focus On Alternative Policy

Left Front Aims To Sweep The Polls

From Our Correspondent

THE CPI(M) state committee will set up an invincible election organisation up to the booth level to ensure the victory of the Left Front in all 42 seats of the state in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. The poll campaign of the LF will be focussed against the BJP-TMC alliance and the Congress. It will also highlight the alternative policy and stand adopted by the CPI(M) on different social and political issues.

The state committee met in Kolkata on February 14 to discuss in detail about the preparations for the coming Lok Sabha polls.  The meeting was presided over by Polit Bureau member, Biman Basu, and attended, among others, by Polit Bureau members Jyoti Basu and Buddhadev Bhattacharya. At the outset, a condolence resolution mourning the death of the leaders, and other eminent people who have expired in the intermediate period was passed.

Speaking to the media after the meeting, CPI(M) state secretary, Anil Biswas, said that as per the reports received from various districts, the political situation is quite favourable to the Left Front. “Many people who were not usually associated with the Party have expressed their desire to join the election organisation.  From the primary reports available, it is evident that the people of the state will re-elect the Left parties in a vast majority of seats”, said Biswas. He said in some districts, the booth committees had been organised in almost all areas. General body meetings are being held as part of the first phase of campaign, which will come to an end by February 29.

In the press statement, released after the meeting, Anil Biswas stated that all- out efforts will be made to oust the BJP and the alliance led by it from power at the centre by ensuring victory of the LF candidates in all the 42 seats of the state. The state committee members presented a detailed analysis of the situation in their respective districts. The state secretary has stressed on intensive door-to-door campaign, wider circulation of Ganashakti daily and other pamphlets among the people, holding of meetings in villages, mohallahs, districts and sub-divisional head quarters.

Biswas called upon the people of the state to beware of the conspiratorial tactics of a section of the media, which has launched a concerted hate campaign against the Left Front. He also called for intensifying the political struggle in order to ward off these forces.  In reply to a reporter’s question, he said Jyoti Basu will take part in the poll campaign as and when his health permits.

Explaining the tactical line adopted in the last central committee meeting held at Hyderabad, Biman Basu said the last five years of NDA governance, which was in effect steered by the RSS-led sangh parivar, has communalised all spheres of social activity.  Moreover, abject capitulation to imperialism has resulted in an unprecedented submissive foreign policy. In the economic sphere, the LPG policies of the centre have wreaked havoc in the life of the common people.  Only a triumph of the alternative policies of the Left can save the country from this all-pervasive downslide.  Basu also pointed out that there is no fundamental difference between the Congress and BJP regarding the economic policy.  He said that in states where the Left forces do not have a strong presence, support would be extended to the secular parties. “The vital aim is to unify the secular and democratic forces for this crucial electoral battle. But the party will also campaign against the anti-people policies of Congress”, said Basu. He further stated there will be no poll alliance or common platform with the Congress anywhere in India and asserted that the political line adopted in the state would be in consonance with the basic goal of ousting the communal fascist government from power.