THE CPI(M) which is contesting two Lok Sabha seats (Araku and Tirupati) and 33 assembly seats has undertaken intensive campaigning meeting the people. Its top leaders including Polit Bureau members Sitaram Yechury, Brinda Karat, B V Raghavulu, Central Secretariat member V Sreenivasa Rao, CC member K Hemalatha, J&K state secretary Mohd Yusuf Tarigami, Tripura LF ministers Jitendra Choudhary and others campaigned for CPI(M) candidates. Yechury campaigned in Seemandhra region for three days. Addressing an impressive gathering in Mangalagiri town of Guntur district, along with CPI(M) assembly candidate, he said no one who aspired to become prime minister before the elections had actually become prime minister. All the prime ministers who assumed office, especially in the coalition era, were chosen post elections. He took pot shots at BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi for contesting from two seats. "If he was so confident of becoming prime minister then why his he contesting from two seats?" he asked rhetorically. Yechury asserted that a non-Congress, non-BJP alternative government can be formed post poll and there are more chances of that. At a meet the press programme organised by AP Union of Working Journalits in Vijayawada, Yechury attacked Telugu Desam chief Chandrababu Naidu for aligning with BJP. He reminded that it was Chandrababu himself who had stated in the past that he had to remain away from power for 10 years because of aligning with BJP. Yechury felt that similar fate is awaited for Babu once again. Answering a question, Yechury said that it was unfortunate that CPI had chosen to ally with Congress in Telangana. The CPI had in the past reviewed that its going with the Congress was a mistake. Then why is it committing the same mistake, he asked. CPI(M) J&K state secretary Mohd Yusuf Tarigami held roadshows in Tirupati town, campaigning for CPI(M) Tirupati Lok Sabha candidate K Subramanyam. Addressing meetings along the way Tarigami called upon the people of Tirupati to drive away the communalists through their vote. He said everyone in the country from Kashmir to Kanyakumari are wanting peace and solutions to their livelihood problems. He charged the BJP of trying to create communal tension in Kashmir, which was in turn being used by fundamentalist forces in the state to strengthen themselves. Tarigami charged that some of the leaders are stoking communal sentiments in order to grab political power. He reminded the people that the deity in Tirumala had married a Muslim lady Bibi Nancharamma and that Hindus and Muslims lived in amity here. The BJP is trying its best to shatter this peaceful co-existence. He attacked the TDP for opportunistically aligning with communal BJP. Later Tarigami campaigned in Anantapur and Kurnool district. CPI(M) central committee member M A Gafoor is the Party candidate In Kurnool assembly seat. Tripura industries and commerce minister Jitendra Choudhary campaigned extensively in Araku (ST) parliamentary seat from where Dr M Babu Rao is the Party candidate. He also campaigned in Paderu assembly seat. He attacked the Congress party for pursuing policies that were resulting in increasing starvation for the poor even as the rich were getting richer. All its promises of proving relief to the people have been given a go by, he charged. HIGH STAKES ELECTION For Telugu Desam president N Chandrababu Naidu who has teamed up with the BJP, the election for 25 Lok Sabha and 175 Assembly seats in Andhra Pradesh (Seemandhra) is going to be very decisive for his future. It is an existential crisis for TDP on two counts. One, TDP is expected to win only around 10 to 15 assembly seats in Telangana and therefore this is the only state where he has to deliver. Two, TDP has already been away from power for the last two terms and it would be difficult to retain cadre and base if it loses yet again. The danger of its cadre and base being grabbed by TRS or BJP in Telangana is real. YSR Congress Party is the favourite to win the election here and it had taken a lead well before the polls were announced. Its president YS Jaganmohan Reddy toured extensively and attracted huge crowds. More crucially all the major political leaders in other parties who could be accommodated by tickets jumped into YSRCP. Jagan in his meetings harped on the theme that only his rule would result in bringing back all the popular welfare schemes launched by his father, late YSR. The TDP-BJP conducted an intensive campaign in the end with Modi, Babu and popular film star Pawan Kalyan (brother of Union minister and film actor K Chiranjeevi) addressing a number of meetings jointly. Their campaign refrain has been that only Modi-Babu combination at centre and state will result in rapid development of the new state. Also that voting for YSRCP means mega corruption and faction rule. TDP leaders are claiming that this campaign, and especially the presence of Pawan Kalyan, has tilted the balance in their favour. Political observers feel that this effort has only reduced the wide gap between YSRCP and TDP but has not helped the TDP-BJP combine to overtake YSRCP. It remains to be seen which of the two will get the mandate of Seemandhra people who are agitated about their future given the fact of bifurcation that has taken away the established city of Hyderabad as their capital. Their concerns about jobs, education, access to health facilities are real while the contending parties are offering them abstract slogans of building Singapore and Shangai as the new capital for the region! Given these high stakes, all stops have been pulled out by all the bourgeois parties as campaigning came to end on Monday. Money, liquor, gold, silver, presents/gifts, and of course currency notes, whatever could be used to ensure their winning chances were thrown in. It is no coincidence that AP has topped the list of states where money was seized by EC, with almost over Rs 131 crores hard cash seized. Over 90 kg of gold, 824 kg of silver and 33.16 lakh IMFL bottles were also seized by police during the campaigning period. As the EC stepped up its surveillance, the candidates too acted in a clever manner. One candidate hid the liquor bottles in a pond and distributed to voters who from outside were seen as cooling off in the pond!