CPI(M) for electoral tie-up with Congress in West Bengal Lok Sabha polls

The decision of the party's Central Committee, which met here, said in a statement that the Communist Party of India (Marxist) had decided that the party would adopt suitable tactics to ensure 'maximisation of the pooling of anti-BJP, anti-TMC votes' by proposing no mutual contest in the present six sitting Lok Sabha seats, currently held by Congress and the Left Front.

The Left Front will meet on March 8 to finalise the other seats, it said.

Reacting to the post-Pulwama March 26 air strike by the Indian Air Force inside Pakistan territory and subsequent events, the CPI(M) said India must step up its diplomatic efforts to exercise international pressure on Pakistan, to purge terror outfits and cross-border terrorist activities.

Blaming BJP for politicising the post-Pulwama events, the statement said 'A united India rose against terrorism. Instead of strengthening this, the post-Pulwama developments are seeing an orchestrated effort by the BJP and Sangh Parivar outfits to rouse jingoistic nationalism. The targeting of Kashmiris in various parts of the country, the calls for abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A are all turning this battle of Indians against terrorism into battles against Kashmiris and Muslims, to further deepen the communal polarisation.'

It also held the NDA Government responsible for the failure of Mr Modi’s Jammu and Kashmir policy, pointing to a 176 per cent rise in the number of terrorist incidents during the course of the Modi government. 'The number of security personnel and civilians killed in such terrorist attacks has grown, it said, adding that the number of security personnel killed saw a rise of 93 per cent.

On an average, eleven terrorists infiltrated every month between 2014 and 2018.

It also noted the more dangerous trend of the sharp rise in local Kashmiri youth joining terrorist groups from 16 in 2013 to 164 in 2018 as a sign of 'deepening alienation of Kashmiri youth,' which was a consequence of the Modi government reneging on its promises to initiate a political process of dialogue with all the stakeholders in Jammu & Kashmir and implementation of confidence-building measures.

The CPI (M) also criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP leaders for politicising the issue and disrupting the united fight of Indians against terrorism for electoral benefit.

Stating that the party would aim at defeating the BJP alliance by increasing the strength of the CPI(M) and the Left in the Lok Sabha and ensure an alternative secular government was formed at the Centre, the statement said to ensure maximum pooling of anti-BJP votes, state level electoral tactics were being worked out. In states where the direct contest was between the Congress and BJP, the CPI(M) will contest one or two seats and campaign generally for the defeat of the BJP.

In Tamil Nadu, discussions were on for seat sharing with DMK while in Maharashtra, talks were on with NCP for contesting Dindori or Palghar seats where the CPI(M) independently polled around a lakh of vote each.

In Bihar, it said, talks were being held with RJD for contesting Ujiarpur seat in Samastipur district.

In Odisha, where simultaneous Lok Sabha and Assembly polls would be held, the CPI(M) would contest the Bhubaneswar Lok Sabha and a few Assembly seats, including its sitting seat Bonnai and called upon the people of Odisha to defeat the BJP.

On the controversial comment made by Mr Modi ridiculing dyslexics, it reacted saying that the Prime Minister during an interaction with students at the Smart India Hackathon 2019 on March 2 in an attempt to portray his political rivals in poor light, 'displayed his regressive mindset' and said that coming from a high office, such insensitive behaviour was 'unacceptable'.

Disciplinary Action

It also announced the suspension of Central Committee member and its Maharashtra secretary Narasayya Adam, from the body for three months, following his speech at a public event in Solapur in the presence of the Prime Minister and state Chief Minister, which had 'hurt the party’s image'.