Left parties gear up to fight 4 Lok Sabha seats

RANCHI: Left parties on Friday said they will be contesting from four parliamentary seats in Jharkhand , adding that the decision to contest the remaining seats will be taken if the opposition’s mahagathbandhan neglects their demand in the seat-sharing agreement.


Left party leaders, including CPI state secretary Bhuwaneshwar Mehta, CPIML state secretary Janardhan Prasad, CPM state secretary G K Bakshi and Marxist Coordination Committee (MCC) president Anand Mahto, met at the CPIML office at Ranchi and discussed their strategy for the upcoming elections.

While addressing the media after the meeting, Prasad said CPI would fight from Hazaribag, CPIML from Koderma and Palamu and CPM from Rajmahal. He added that his party would announce the candidates on March 25.

Mehta said, “The CPI is traditionally strong at Hazaribag. I have defeated BJP candidates twice from the constituency since 1984. Our party has demanded that the mahagathbandhan should leave Hazaribag for us. Or else, our state unit will hold a meeting to decide the other seats to put up a candidate.” He added that RJD supremo Lalu Prasad too wants the left parties to get a role in the opposition alliance.

Bakshi announced that Gopin Soren would be the CPM candidate from Rajmahal seat. He said, “The mahgathbandhan should not ignore the left parties as the latter has at least 4.5% of the total votes. They would take a decision on fighting from Dhanbad after mahagathabandhan announces its poll agreement.”

While stating that the basic mantra of left parties is to defeat BJP, the formation also wants to increase their strength in parliament. “The left parties would support each other’s contestants in the elections while on other seats we would support the candidates who are likely to defeat the BJP,” the leaders said.