THE election campaign of CPI(M) Central Committee member, former AIKS state president and one of the outstanding leaders of the two Kisan Long Marches, J P Gavit, MLA, for the Dindori (ST) Lok Sabha seat, is now in full swing. It began on April 4, 2019 with a massive 25,000-strong public meeting at Chandwad that was addressed by CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury (reported earlier in these columns).

THE fight to exercise the right to vote has assumed a new dimension in West Bengal. In the first phase, large number of booths were captured particularly in Cooch Behar. TMC armed gangs had chased away voters and opposition polling agents from the polling booths in many areas of the constituency. The token presence of central para military forces was of no use. In the second phase, in Raiganj, Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, there was large scale resistance of the people. In Raiganj, for example, citizens formed human chain days before the polling demanding free and fair voting.

Deferred Polling Proves Abject LawlessnessTHE Election Commission of India, in the night of April 16th, deferred the polling for Tripura East ST reserved parliamentary constituency scheduled to be held on April 18, to April 23. This decision from the ECI was prompted, as the notification says, by the reports from the CEO, special police observer and the returning officer of the constituency.

As the polling date draws close, state of political affairs in Kerala explicitly shows that the Left Democratic Front (LDF) has an edge over the UDF and BJP in all 20 parliamentary constituencies, including Wayanad where Congress president Rahul Gandhi is contesting. Kerala votes on April 23.The untimely and unusual decision of Rahul Gandhi to contest from Wayanad seems to be counter-productive for the Congress, as the BJP is harping on the presence of Muslim League’s green flag in his public meetings in Wayanad.

CPI(M) had organised a protest dharna at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on April 16 against the failure of Election Commission of India (ECI) in ensuring free and fair elections in Tripura. The polling for the West Tripura Lok Sabha seat saw large scale violence and rigging by the BJP. Election officials and observers and central forces were not seen in the booths that were “captured”.