TILL the time of writing these lines, in the first phase of Jharkhand Assembly elections, voting has been done on 43 seats out of total 81 seats on November 13. For the second phase, elections will be held on 38 seats on November 20. BJP is trying to give a complete communal colour to this election.

Efforts are being made to increase communal polarisation by organising frequent visits of Prime Minister Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, half a dozen chief ministers and dozens of union ministers of BJP ruled states. On one hand, Amit Shah is expressing his love for the tribal people by issuing the 'Sankalp Patra' (election manifesto), and on the other hand, the same central government led by this party is starting a new phase of displacement of tribals and other poor people by auctioning coal mines in the scheduled areas of Jharkhand.

BJP is resorting to all kinds of conspiracies to form the government in Jharkhand. This includes misuse of central agencies including the Election Commission during elections, attempts to influence voters by spending huge amounts of money and false propaganda using all the media options. The only objective behind this effort of BJP is to make the natural wealth (i.e., mines, minerals and jal-jangal and zamin) of Jharkhand easily available to its masters.

On the other hand, there is an alliance between the state's largest regional party Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) and the Congress and RJD. This alliance did not take any initiative towards building broad based unity to form a secular government in Jharkhand.

In this election, there are massive party changes from both the alliances. There is no  political ideology whatsoever in this party change. Till yesterday, those who indulged in politics of hatred and division join the so-called secular party to get an election ticket and those deprived of election ticket in the so-called secular party immediately wear the badge of communal party. The voters of the state are also surprised by this party change. 

In this situation, CPI(M) has fielded candidates on nine seats in its support base area and the Party is contesting the elections with full strength. Of the Party's nine candidates, five are from the tribal community, including one female tribal candidate.

There is one candidate from dalit community and one from Muslim minority community and two candidates belong to Other Backward Classes(OBC). 

In line with its political decisions, CPI(M) has announced that apart from the nine seats where it is contesting, in the remaining 72 assembly seats we will support the alliance/party that defeats the communal forces, BJP and its alliance.

In this background, in the first round of election campaign, several well-attended election meetings were organised in various assemblies. Party Polit Bureau member Brinda Karat attended these meetings. In her five-day election campaign, Brinda Karat addressed half a dozen election meetings in Sisai, Tamar, Baharagora, Mandar and Chatra assembly constituencies. Addressing these election meetings and rallies, she said that the Jharkhand Assembly election is an important election.

During the time of BJP's infamous Raghuvar government, the people of the state have seen the work of the so-called double engine government, which during its rule had made this mineral rich state a place for plunder by the corporate houses in the name of 'Momentum Jharkhand'.

During that period, anti-people changes were made in the land related laws to forcibly evict farmers and raiyats from their lands. When they protested against this, they were shot dead by the BJP government police and false cases were filed against thousands of people including our Party workers. During the BJP rule itself, dozens of mob lynching incidents were reported in Jharkhand and Muslim minorities were killed. During the same period, many deaths due to hunger were also recorded in the state. In the same sequence, while addressing a press conference at the Press Club in Ranchi, Brinda Karat said that BJP is a mixture of poison and lies, hence it is necessary to defeat it in this election. On this occasion, an appeal was also issued to the voters of Jharkhand by Party state secretary Prakash Viplav, secretariat members Sameer Das and Prafulla Linda. The appeal called upon the voters of the state to pave the way for the formation of a secular government in the state by rejecting the false propaganda of the BJP and its allies about Bangladeshi infiltrators and changing demography, with an intention to push communal polarisation in the elections. And increase the power of the Left forces including CPI(M) in the Assembly so that we can move forward in the direction of building a better Jharkhand.