Rajendra Sharma on Return from Rajasthan WHEN the present reporter visited Rajasthan, it was very clear that the people of this state were not going to give any party an absolute majority. They have the experience of the Congress as well as Bharatiya Janata Party in action and well realise that none of them is going to solve the problems facing them. They feel that a hung assembly would be in their interest, as they would be able to pressurise the new government, formed by whichever party or coalition, for adopting some pro-people policies. This was the situation in which the CPI(M) appealed to the Rajasthan voters that an increase in its representation in the state assembly would be all the more beneficial for the common people. It is after all the CPI(M) that has been raising the people’s issues with full force all the time during the preceding five years --- and earlier --- within the assembly as well as outside. The party had three members in the preceding assembly. In the context of the CPI(M)’s role in the state during the last five years, Sitaram Yechury, Polit Bureau member and leader of the CPI(M) group in Rajya Sabha, drew attention to what the Left did for the people when it was supporting the UPA-1 government at the centre from outside. It was the Left which compelled the central government to enact laws and initiate programmes like the NREGA, Right to Education Act, Forest Rights Act, Right to Information Act etc. Yechury toured through the Sriganganagar, Hanumangarh and Sikar districts of Rajasthan from November 24 to 25, for the CPI(M)’s election campaign. In the impressive mass meetings organised by the party, he made an appeal to the electorate to vote for all the CPI(M) candidates in the December 1 polls. Earlier, CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat had addressed CPI(M) election meetings on November 22 and 23, while Tripura chief minister Manik Sarkar campaigned from November 26 onward and Brinda Karat from November 27 onward. Others who took part in the party’s election campaign during different parts of the month of November included Indrajit Singh, Arun Mehta, Mohd Yousuf Tarigami and Rakesh Singha (state secretaries of the party in Haryana, Gujarat, Jammu & Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh respectively), CPI(M) Central Committee member Subhashini Ali and Tripura minister Jiten Sarker etc. The CPI(M) had put up its candidates on 37 constituencies in different parts of Rajasthan. Election to one of these seats was postponed because of the death of one of the candidates. Hannan Mollah, CPI(M) Central Secretariat member and observer for Rajasthan from the party centre, stayed in the state for about three weeks and took part in a large number of the CPI(M)’s election meetings. He told us that apart from retaining its sitting seats --- Dhondh (Pema Ram), Dataramgarh (Amra Ram) and Anupgarh (Pawan Duggal) --- the party was quite hopeful of a sizeable increase in its strength in the new state assembly. According to the information gathered from various sources, the party’s candidates were in a good position in Raisinghnagar (Sheopat Ram) and Shardulshehar (Hetram Beniwal) of Ganganagar district, Bhadra (Balwan Punia) in Hanumangarh district, Lakshmangarh (B S Meel) and Taranagar (Nirmal Prajapt) in Sikar district and Jharol (Prem Pargi) in Udaipur district.