Price rise, corruption to be CPM poll plank- Jan 16, 2011

Price rise, corruption to be CPM poll plank

TNN, Jan 16, 2011, 04.08am IST

(MY FULL SUPPORT ON THESE ISSUES,AS I THINK CORRUPTION AND PRICE RISE IS REALLY HURTING COMMON PEOPLE!!!...VIBHA)

KOLKATA: Price rise and corruption are the two major issues that CPM will highlight as the Left takes on Congress and its allies in the run-up to assembly elections in five states — West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Assam and Puducherry.

At the same time, the party plans to annoy Congress over the Maoist links of its first ally, Trinamool Congress, at a time when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has described the outlawed outfit as a major thr-eat to India's internal security.

In order to ensure incidents like Netai in West Midnapore do not recur, the CPM politburo wants the state government to step up administrative action against the offenders.

On Day 1 of its two-day meeting here on Saturday, the politburo discussed CPM's electoral tactics in terms of campaign and alliances in the five states, particularly in Bengal and Kerala where reverses like those in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls may deal a blow to CPM's status as a national party.

CPM will thus take up Trinamool's alleged Maoist links at the national level to counter the tirade over the deteriorating law and order situation in Bengal as was evident from the Netai carnage.

CPM leaders maintain that Congress no longer enjoys the support it did during the 2009 Lok Sabha polls. In his report to the politburo, party general secretary Prakash Karat kept up the pressure on the Congress-led UPA over the 2G spectrum scam and insisted on nothing less than a joint parliamentary committee probe. Given DMK's alliance with Congress in Tamil Nadu, the Left may go with J Jayala-lithaa's AIADMK as they did during the Lok Sabha polls.

Even the politburo members from Bengal — Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, Biman Bose and Nirupam Sen — are finding it increasingly difficult to distinguish between Congress and Trinamool Congress, given the way Congress is playing "second fiddle to Trina-mool's canards" against CPM terror in the state.

However, chief minister Bhattacharjee wants to keep the doors open for negotiations with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, home minister P Chidambaram and finance minister Pranab Mukherjee to counter Trinamool as it plans to step up the campaign in Kolkata and Delhi on January 19, when the CM calls on Singh and Chidambaram.

Trinamool Congress supporters across the state will take out candle-lit marches in the city and the districts that day against mass killings at Netai, Nandigram and Singur.

"Janata Adak, Gitali Adak's daughter in Netai, is pleading for justice. And the CM is goi-ng to Delhi to barter peace wh-en CPM cadres are on a killing spree in Bengal. Our supporters will take out the rally in a single line on January 19 so that traffic isn't disturbed. Trinamool MPs will stage a dharna on the same issue at Delhi's Jantar Mantar that day," said Partha Chatterjee, leader of opposition in the assembly. He came down hard on CPM minister Gautam Deb's "peace" offer to Mamata Banerjee.