SPEAKING in a seminar on May 2 in Bhopal , Sitaram Yechury, general secretary of the CPI(M) said that in the last five years there has been a twin attack on the people of the country. On the one hand, the democratic values and constitutional provisions were incessantly attacked at the behest of the BJP government. On the other, there was severe attack the livelihoods of the people; economic hardships and inequity in the country increased.

CPI(M) worker from West Bengal, Comrade Sk Kamrul, was killed  and five others were grievously injured after members of Trinamool Congress (TMC) assaulted them at Khandaghosh in East Burdwan district on May 5. They were attacked for organising a protest against the ‘vote loot’, the capturing of election booths by the ruling party, in Khandaghosh, Bishnupur Lok Sabha constituency, where elections would be held on May 12.Growing resistance against vote loot has become a striking phenomenon of this election in West Bengal.

CONTROVERSY erupted after the Intermediate exam results in Telangana were declared on April 18. The success rate of first-year students was 60.5 per cent and second-year students 64.8 per cent. Girls outshone boys in the examinations. The success rate was increasing every year, whereas this year it has fallen compared to last year. This has raised doubts in the minds of the students, parents and intellectuals, and they questioned the authenticity of the results.Many discrepancies occurred in the results. Thousands of students are in a state of confusion.

THE Madras High Court on April 27, has ordered the transfer of Madurai District Collector, an Assistant Returning Officer, Personal Assistant (General) to the Collector and the Assistant Commissioner of Police (Crime) and others involved for the breach of security, on a petition filed by CPI(M) candidate Su Venkatesan.Su Venkatesan has moved the court after a tahsildar entered a storage room situated adjacent to the strong room where the Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) of Madurai parliamentary constituency were stored.

In a meet the press programme held in Calcutta Press Club on April 27, Surjya Kanta Misra, secretary of the CPI(M), West Bengal state committee, said, ‘Everyday TMC is now taking a roll call of its MLA’s to find out,  how many are left, and how many have gone to BJP. But this roll calling will not save the party. Soon the entire TMC will be transformed to BJP, as it happened in Tripura.’When journalists asked him why people are joining BJP, leaving TMC and CPI(M), Surjya replied, ‘In our(Left) rule of 34 years, West Bengal had never witnessed this game of switch over.