THE CPI(M) is contesting four Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra for the first time. Of these, the Palghar (ST) seat in Thane district and the Dindori (ST) seat in Nashik district are its traditional tribal belt seats where the party has consistently secured over one lakh votes each in the last few Lok Sabha elections. The other two seats which the party is fighting for the first time are the general seats of Nashik and Hingoli. The latter comprises parts of Yavatmal district in Vidarbha region and Hingoli and Nanded districts in Marathwada region. The voting for the Hingoli seat is to take place on April 17 and that for the other three seats on April 24. The CPI(M)’s election campaign for all four seats is going on in right earnest and thousands of activists of the CPI(M) and of the various mass fronts, as well as leaders of friendly parties like the CPI and JD(S), are enthusiastically participating in the campaign. The CPI(M) has decided to publish over 10 lakh election leaflets for all these four seats put together. In all the four seats, the party is fighting the BJP-Shiv Sena communal combine and the Congress-NCP alliance and also the AAP and the BSP, and in some seats the MNS, SP and BRP. In all these four seats, the CPI(M) is vigorously taking forward its electoral line of calling for the defeat of the BJP, the rejection of the Congress and the strengthening of the Left and secular forces. Only a few days ago the Congress candidate in the Palghar (ST) seat, who is a minister in the state government, withdrew his candidature in favour of the Bahujan Vikas Aghadi (BVA), a dubious outfit with criminal connections that has the sitting MP here. CAMPAIGN IN HINGOLI In the Hingoli seat, the nomination form of the party candidate D B Naik was filed on March 25. There was a procession led by CPI(M) state secretariat members Udayan Sharma, Vijay Gabhane and Prahlad Ghadge, state committee members Shankar Danav, Arjun Adey and Ramkrishna Shere, and district secretaries Ankush Budhwant and Vilas Babar, among others. Since three districts are covered in this constituency, on the same day an extended meeting of leading party activists was held in Hingoli and the planning for the campaign was done. In early February, a meeting of the CPI(M) state committee was held at Mahur in Nanded district --- an area that comes in the Hingoli Lok Sabha constituency --- and this was accompanied by an impressive rally of thousands that was addressed by CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury and Central Secretariat member Nilotpal Basu. A concerted campaign has now been launched in Yavatmal, Nanded and Hingoli districts. Hundreds of party activists are going house to house with leaflets and are taking a series of village meetings in all the three districts. On April 12 and 13, three large public meetings were to be held at Hingoli, Mahagaon and Kinwat and these were to be addressed by Nilotpal Basu, Central Committee members Dr Ashok Dhawale and Narsayya Adam, state committee member M H Shaikh and the above leaders. DINDORI AND NASHIK The electoral preparation for the Dindori and Nashik seats began in November last year, when a party district workshop was held at Nashik in the presence of Nilotpal Basu. On April 3 the nomination forms of both party candidates --- Hemant Waghere and Tanaji Jaybhave --- were filed in Nashik by a 3,000-strong procession that was led by CPI(M) state secretariat members J P Gavit and Dr D L Karad, state committee members Kisan Gujar, Sitaram Thombre and Irfan Shaikh, city secretary Shridhar Deshpande and CPI leaders. In both the seats house to house campaigning has begun with 2.5 lakh leaflets printed for Nashik and another two lakh leaflets printed for Dindori, with more to follow. Election offices in various tehsils of Nashik district and in parts of Nashik city have been inaugurated. Public meetings are being held in urban and rural areas to take the political message of the party to the people. Motorcycle rallies have been planned to cover each of the constituencies. On April 15, two large public meetings will be held at Wani and Nashik and these will be addressed by Sitaram Yechury, Nilotpal Basu, Dr Ashok Dhawale and others. Again on April 19-20, large public meetings will be held at Nashik and Surgana, to be addressed by Tripura minister and Lok Sabha candidate Jitendra Choudhury, Narsayya Adam and others. PUSH IN PALGHAR The electoral preparations for the Palghar seat began last November with a two day party district workshop held in the presence of Nilotpal Basu. In December, the first Maharashtra state conference of the Adivasi Adhikar Rashtriya Manch (AARM) was held at Talasari in Thane district, with a public meeting that was addressed by CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Brinda Karat and Jitendra Choudhury. From February 12 to 15, over 25,000 people under CPI(M) leadership marched to the seven tehsil offices in Thane district on burning issues of the people. From March 24 to 31, party general body meetings were held in each tehsil to finalise the election campaign. On April 3, the nomination form of party candidate Ladkya Kharpade was filed at Jawhar by a 5,000-strong procession that was led by CPI(M) state secretary Dr Ashok Dhawale, state secretariat members Rajaram Ozare (MLA) and Mariam Dhawale, state control commission chairman and veteran leader L B Dhangar, former state secretariat member and veteran leader Lahanu Kom (former MP), state committee members Barkya Mangat, Ratan Budhar, Edward Vartha, Hemlata Kom, Shailendra Kamble and JD(S) leaders. For the election campaign three lakh leaflets have been printed, with more to follow. House to house campaigning has begun and a series of village level public meetings are being held. Motorcycle rallies with red flags will be held in each tehsil. The campaign in two urban assembly segments of this Lok Sabha constituency is being conducted by the CPI(M) Mumbai district committee, while the campaign in the other four rural assembly segments is being conducted by the CPI(M) Thane district committee. The four major public meetings that will be held in the Palghar constituency are as follows --- April 13 at Vasai in Vasai tehsil --- CPI(M) Polit Bureau member M A Baby, state secretariat members Mahendra Singh and Mariam Dhawale; April 14 at Kasa in Dahanu tehsil --- Sitaram Yechury, Nilotpal Basu and Dr Ashok Dhawale; April 16 at Vikramgad in Vikramgad tehsil – Brinda Karat and Lahanu Kom; April 19 – Chalatwad in Jawhar tehsil – Jitendra Choudhury and Rajaram Ozare. USE OF THE SOCIAL MEDIA For the first time, the CPI(M) is making use of the social media in this election campaign. Five comrades attended the All India Social Media Workshop organised by the party in Delhi. On March 15, a state level workshop was held in Mumbai that was attended by 61 comrades from 11 districts. Kiran Chandra from Hyderabad, Paresh Tokekar ‘Kabira’ from Indore and Dr R Ramakumar from Mumbai guided this workshop which was inaugurated by state secretary Dr Ashok Dhawale. State committee members Dr Vivek Monteiro and Shailendra Kamble chaired the two sessions. State committee member Shubha Shamim introduced the workshop. Prasad Subramaniam, Nilesh Patil and Sadiq Basha, who are active in the social media field, also made important interventions. The workshop set up a nine member committee that will take this work forward in the future. On March 21, the website of the CPI(M) Maharashtra state committee was inaugurated by Nilotpal Basu in a meeting held at the party state committee office ‘Janashakti’ in Mumbai. Shubha Shamim and other committee members are looking after this important field. The weekly journal of the CPI(M) Maharashtra state committee Jeevan Marg is also being effectively utilised to take the stand of the party on various issues in this crucial Lok Sabha election to the party activists and the people. The CPI(M) election manifesto and the small booklets brought out by the party centre on various important issues are being published in Jeevan Marg, apart from the salient features of the Maharashtra electoral scene.