P R Natarajan

P R Natarajan was a member of the Party state committee for a long time. Currently, he is a member of the district secretariat of Coimbatore. He was elected to the parliament from Coimbatore constituency in 2009 Lok Sabha elections. He has a good name among the public both as a CPI(M) leader and as an MP. P R Natarajan who contested from Coimbatore parliamentary constituency secured 5,71,150 (45.6 per cent) votes defeating his nearest rival (BJP candidate) by a margin of  1,76,918 votes.

Su Venkatesan

Su Venkatesan is a state committee member of the Party and a whole-timer of the Party. He is the state president of Tamil Nadu Progressive Writers and Artists Association. He was conferred the Sahitya Academy Award for his Tamil novel Kaval Kottam. His recent book Vel Pari was widely well-received among the public. He is well known in the literary field and is popular among general public. Su Venkatesan who contested from Madurai parliamentary constituency secured 4,47,075 (44 per cent) votes defeating his nearest rival (AIADMK candidate) by a margin of  1,34,119 votes.

A M Ariff

Despite a landslide victory gained by the opposition UDF across Kerala, the lone CPI (M) candidate A M Ariff recorded a big victory over his opponent. Ariff, a sitting MLA from Aroor, who contested from Alappuzha constituency, got 41 per cent of polled votes. As Ariff gained 4,45,970 votes, his nearest rival Shanimol Usman from the Congress party got 4,35,496 votes. BJP candidate, K S Radhakrishnan bagged 1.87 lakhs votes.  Radhakrishnan was a Congress sympathiser and former vice chancellor of Shankaracharya Sanskrit University. He joined the BJP days before the election schedule was declared.  

Ariff, a three-time MLA from Aroor, is an advocate by profession and a former SFI, DYFI leader. He became a legislator defeating K R Gouriamma in the 2006 assembly elections. He also won in the next two consecutive elections. He served as CPI(M) Aroor area secretary. 

ODISHA: CPI(M) Retains Bonai Assembly Seat 

Ali Kishor Patnaik

IN the recently concluded elections to the Odisha Legislative Assembly, CPI(M) has retained the  Bonai(ST) seat. This is for the third term the CPI(M)   won this constituency. Except in 2009, in 2004 and 2014 elections, the  CPI(M) candidate,  Laxman Munda got elected from this constituency.

He defeated the BJD candidate by a margin of 12,030 votes. In 2014, the margin of victory of CPI(M) was 1,818. In that election, the total valid votes polled in Bonai assembly constituency were 1,59,385(81.18 per cent)  out of  which CPI(M) polled 39,125 votes and defeated the BJD candidate, who got 37,307 votes.

In 2019 the voter turnout was 1,76,321(79.57 per cent) out of which CPI(M) nominee Laxman Munda polled 59,939(34.67 per cent) votes and the BJD polled 47,909(27.71 per cent). In comparison to 2014, the CPI(M) polled 20,814 more votes in 2019.

Laxman Munda is the Odisha state committee member of CPI(M), vice- president of CITU Odisha state committee and president of Sundargarh Khadan Mazdoor Union.

Bonai assembly constituency is in Sundargarh district in the western part of Odisha. The entire area is rich in minerals like iron ore, manganese, limestone, lead etc. Bordering Jharkhand, Bonai is one of the adivasi dominated constituencies of the state. Thousands of adivasi workers are engaged directly or indirectly in the mining activities, who are organised under the red flag since last more than three decades. Apart from the trade union struggles, poor and dispossessed people of the area are organised under the red flag of CPI(M). People have rejected, rather fought back the allurement and threats of the state and central governments to break the unity of the people and strongly stood behind the red flag, which the adivasis feel as their symbol of unity and struggle for livelihood.