Maha: CPI(M) Begins Hingoli Lok Sabha Election Campaign
Shankar Sidam / Ujjwala Padalwar
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ON April 8, 2024, the CPI(M) began its election campaign for the Hingoli Lok Sabha seat in Maharashtra with an enthusiastic convention of more than 100 of its main activists. They came from the three districts of Nanded and Hingoli in the Marathwada region, and Yavatmal in the Vidarbha region. Parts of these three districts come in this constituency. The voting date for this seat is April 26. The CPI(M) had fought this Lok Sabha seat once earlier in 2014.
The CPI(M) candidate for this seat is Vijay Ramji Gabhane, a member of the Party's state secretariat and CITU leader from Nanded district. 58 year-old Vijay Gabhane, who hails from a poor peasant family in Mahur tehsil of Nanded district, founded the SFI in Nanded district in 1983 and was elected its state joint secretary in 1986. His experience of organising tribal peasants from Kinwat and Mahur tehsils drew him to the AIKS in the early 1990s after he was relieved from the SFI. He was elected Nanded district secretary and then state joint secretary of the AIKS. The Party later shifted him to Nanded city and he became a trade union activist. As a state secretary of the CITU he built up and led many unions of mainly unorganised sections: dalit workers, contract workers, homeless people, mid-day meal workers, ASHA workers, and so on. He joined the CPI(M) in 1984, was elected secretary of its Nanded district committee for several years and was elected to the state committee in the 1990s. He is currently a state secretariat member of the CPI(M).
The Hingoli convention was inaugurated by CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Ashok Dhawale, and it was presided over by state secretary and Central Committee member Uday Narkar, who made the concluding speech. The convention was also addressed by the candidate Vijay Gabhane, Party state secretariat members Ajit Nawale and Kisan Gujar, and state committee members Shankar Sidam, Uddhav Poul, Adv Bhagwan Bhojane, Adv Ajay Burande, and Maroti Khandare. Ankush Budhwant conducted the proceedings.
All the speakers came down heavily on the anti-people, pro-corporate, communal and authoritarian Modi-led BJP-RSS regime, called for its resounding defeat, and for the victory of the CPI(M). Several activists also spoke well and gave their valuable suggestions for running an effective campaign.
The Party state committee meeting that was held earlier on April 1-2, 2024 had unanimously decided to contest the Hingoli seat and had also decided on the likely candidates. It had given a statewide fund call for the Hingoli election campaign which is now being fulfilled.
From April 11 to 13, Uday Narkar, Vijay Gabhane, and other leading activists held good activists’ conventions in all the three districts that come in this constituency – Nanded, Hingoli, and Yavatmal. The campaign has now picked up, with a large number of village meetings, leafleting, jeep propaganda, a vibrant campaign on social media, and so on.
During the last few days from April 21 to 24, public meetings in this campaign will be addressed by Ashok Dhawale, Central Committee member Mariam Dhawale, state secretariat members Vinod Nikole, MLA, Kiran Gahala, and other Party leaders.
The CPI(M) had earlier made all efforts at all levels to see that the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA-INDIA) left the Dindori (ST) Lok Sabha seat in Nashik district for the Party. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the CPI(M) had got over 1,09,000 votes in the Dindori seat, fighting independently on its own strength against both the BJP-Shiv Sena combine, and the Congress-NCP alliance. However, the MVA declined to give us this seat, which showed its lack of sagacity. Hence, as per the CPI(M) Central Committee directive that major states in the country should fight at least one Lok Sabha seat each, the Party in Maharashtra is fighting the Hingoli Lok Sabha seat from outside the MVA.
In all the remaining 47 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra, the CPI(M) will, of course, work with all its strength for the defeat of the BJP and its allies, and for the victory of the MVA.
On April 9, 2024, the MVA held its first joint press conference in Mumbai, which was excellently covered by all sections of the media. This was addressed by MVA leaders like Sharad Pawar and Jayant Patil (NCP), Uddhav Thackeray and Sanjay Raut (SS), and Nana Patole and Balasaheb Thorat (Congress). The CPI(M) was represented at the MVA press conference by Ashok Dhawale, Uday Narkar, Ajit Nawale, and Vinod Nikole, MLA.
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