ALONG with rising temperatures, the political atmosphere is also blowing hot in Kerala, the southern-most state of the country. The entry of Congress president Rahul Gandhi in Wayanad constituency has also added to this. By any count, Left Democratic Front (LDF) is far ahead in electioneering and campaign. Three weeks ago, all the 20 candidates from the Left were announced. The selection of candidates also gives an impression that the LDF has taken the fight against Modi government very seriously. All sitting MPs except P Karunakaran, were retained, and four MLAs are in the fray.

UNDER the pressure of long struggles of working peoples’ organisations for the right to work including the All India Agricultural Workers Union(AIAWU), the UPA-I government which came to power with the Left support, brought in a National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005. This was later renamed as the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).  SUCCESS OF MGNREGADespite all its limitations and problems in implementation, MGNREGA has proved its utility in rural India in periods of economic and agrarian distress in the last decade.

CPI(M) Polit Bureau member, Nilotpal Basu, has written to the chief election commissioner, Election Commission of India on March 29 regarding various issues, including attacks on candidates by the ruling party in Tripura.  He drew the attention of the CEC to the letter written by the CPI(M) candidate Shankar Prasad Dutta, from 1- Tripura West parliamentary constituency to the CEC dated March 28, 2019.Basu said that it is quite apparent that the interaction of the delegation led by the Party general secretary, Sitaram Yechury with the Commission, has not been able to evoke any tangible respo

CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Brinda Karat addressed a large rally in Suryapet on April 2 in support of the party candidate from Nalgonda parliamentary constituency in Telangana, Mallu Laxmi.Addressing the rally in Suryapet, Karat said 75 per cent of the parliamentarians were rich and lacked understanding of the problems faced by the common people. Women in the country are facing multiple problems, but there is barely any force in Parliament to take up their fight. Both the Congress and the BJP have delayed the passage of the Women’s Reservation Bill.

TELANGANA state is having 17 parliamentary seats, out of which 4 seats namely Khammam, Nalgonda, Mahbubabad and Bhonagiri will be jointly contested by CPI (M) and CPI. CPI(M) is contesting Khammam and Nalgonda, CPI is contesting Bhonagiri and Mahbubabad. CPI(M) has officially announced the candidature of Mallu Laxmi from Nalgonda constituency and B Venkat from Khammam constituency.