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”. Further, polling agents of the opposition parties were expelled from most of the booths and CCTV cameras were also damaged to hide the misdeeds.

WITH two phases over, campaign by the leaders, workers and supporters of CPI(M) is at its peak in West Bengal. The scorching sun and sweltering heat has not been able to act as a dampener to the combative spirit of the comrades. Every nook and cranny of every constituency is being visited by Left activists who have laid more stress on door-to door campaign and people-to-people contact. They are approaching every voter to listen to their woes and show their solidarity with their daily struggle for survival.

RICH tributes were offered to Comrade Makineni Basavapunnaiah, a great Marxist theoretician and one of the pioneers of CPI(M), on the occasion of his 27th death anniversary. A meeting was conducted at MB Vignana Kendram (MBVK) at Vijayawada on April 12. P Madhu, chairman of MBVK Trust and CPI(M) state secretary explained the life of Comrade MB and his contribution to the Indian communist movement. He praised the vision of Comrade MB, which has been showing the party a clear direction in difficult situations.

JULIAN Assange’s arrest by the UK police from the Ecuadorian Embassy after the Moreno administration withdrew his asylum, has drawn worldwide condemnation. Noam Chomsky, John Pilger, Nobel Laureate Mairead Maguire are among the leading figures who have condemned Assange’s arrest. In India, N Ram, Arundhati Roy, Gopal Gandhi, Indira Jainsing, P Sainath and Romila Thapar, condemning the arrest, stated, “His (Assange’s) arrest, and the attempt to extradite him to the US are, clearly, attacks on freedom of the press and its right to publish.”

“DIL se Salim, Phir se Salim” is the war cry of the CPI(M) cadres, supporters and people of the Raiganj Lok Sabha constituency in Uttar Dinajpur district of West Bengal. This constituency with approximately 14 lakh electorate has once been a Congress stronghold with exceptions on certain occasions. The CPI(M) with sustained efforts and enthusiastic campaigning was able to harness the deep-rooted sense of betrayal amongst the common man against the then incumbent member of parliament of the Indian National Congress and wrest the seat from her in 2014.