ADDRESING a mammoth  rally in Jalpaiguri in support of the Left Front candidate Mahendra Kumar Roy for the Jalpaiguri Lok Sabha constituency and Dianabandhu Roy candidate for the Maynaguri assembly constituency by-election, leader of the opposition in the West Bengal assembly,  Dr Surjya Kanta Mishra said the anti-people policy pursued by the Congress, the BJP and the TMC is making the rich, richer while the distress of the poor continues.     The CPI(M) Polit Bureau member said that growing unemployment and jobless growth and increasing disparities are all on account of the neo-liberal policies and said that it is only the Left that can provide an alternative policy.   The communal BJP is no different in as far as pursuit of neo liberal economic policies are concerned. Mishra appealed to the voters to strengthen the voice of secular, democratic and pro-people representation in parliament to ensure that alternative pro-people policies can be put in place. KARNATAKA CPI(M) Karnataka state secretary and its candidate from the Chickballapura Lok Sabha Constituency, GV Sreerama Reddy has been emphasising during his campaign in the constituency  there is little to choose between the two evils and that a policy-based alternative is the need of the hour.   He challenged Veerappa Moily of the Congress to implement his promise of bringing water to the area in two years. He also ridiculed JD(S) candidate and ex-CM Kumaraswamy, for not addressing any issues as an MP, hence running away from his home constituency. He criticised all three major parties – Congress, BJP and the JD(S) of sell-out to big business and also ‘selling’ politics by trying to buy votes with money and liquour. Taking a dig at the AAP candidate, an ex-IPS officer who owns property worth several crores, Sreerama Reddy  said that the only real ‘Aam Aadmis’ in politics are the communists.     Till now the CPI(M) candidate has already covered all eight assembly constituencies in addressing meetings at major intersections  and road corners. He has intensively covered Bagepally, Hoskote, Yelahanka and Nelamangala assembly constituencies.  At Hoskote and Bagepally, his convoy was preceded by a bike-rally.  A cultural troupe performing songs, skits and speeches is touring the villages. Door to door campaigning is also being conducted vigorously in the constituency by several groups of volunteers. A youth political convention was also held where Dr. G Ramakrishna, an eminent Marxist intellectual, writer and thinker participated. Dr. Ramakrishna called upon the youth to opt for alternative politics and discharge their democratic duty by utilizing the opportunity to vote for the Left. He emphasised that only the Left can save the country. MADHYA PRADESH THE CPI(M) candidate from Jhabua-Ratlam Lok Sabha constituency in Madhya Pradesh, Lata Bharbore, filed her nomination at Jhabua on April 4, 2014. Prior to the filing of the nomination papers CPI(M) workers took out an impressive procession covering a five kilometer radius in the town. Speaking at the public meeting at the conclusion of the march, CPI(M) state secretary Badal Saroj appealed to the electorate to vote for the CPI(M) candidate. He said that the lot of the tribals could improve only if the current trajectory of policies pursued by the UPA government at the Centre and the BJP government in Madhya Pradesh is changed. The tribals have been deprived of their rights over forests and alienated from their lands. Their rights over forests and land needs to be restored he said. An accident left Lata’s father bedridden for four years in her youth. Lata’s family suffered greatly during this period – finding it hard to survive in an area that lives in acute distress. Madhya Pradesh’s plutocrats use the manganese and rock phosphate of Jhabua-Ratlam for their own enrichment, leaving this majority adivasi area without any social development. Less than two percent of the households here have safe tap water, and most households have no drainage. It is in 2012 that Lata Bharbore and her husband, Edwin Eldons, joined the CPI(M). In the rural part of the district, the Party has a committed base through the Adivasi Ekta Mahasabha. The local administration arrested Bharbore and her husband under the SC/ST Act – it was as if the local government wanted to say that adivasis should not have a political identity. The top administrative officer of the district said that she could join any party – but not the CPI(M). She persisted, and continued to be harassed by the bureaucracy, and was arrested again on two occasions again. Bharbore is active in the organization of dais (midwives) in Jhabua. Bharbore has worked with adivasi women to get permanent jobs as mid-day meal workers and helpers in government hospitals. Accompanying her while filing the nomination among others were CPI(M) State Secretary, Badal Saroj, State Secretariat Member and Jasvinder Singh. HARYANA ADDRESSING an election meeting at Bhiwani in support of Master Sher Singh, the CPI(M) candidate from Bhiwani-Mohindergarh constituency, CPI(M) Central Secretariat Member Nilotpal Basu accused both the Congress and BJP of permitting the loot of wealth and natural resources belonging to the people, by big corporations and global finance capital. He said that the projection of Modi, as the Prime Ministerial candidate by the corporate sector, is aimed at more and more naked sell out of precious resources and their ruthless exploitation by suppressing democratic protests of the suffering masses, as has been done in Gujarat. The real face of the so-called Gujarat model is actually the unbridled concessions offered to big monopoly capitalists. 68-year old Master Sher Singh, the CPI (M) candidate from Bhiwani-Mahendergrah, is a retired teacher and the president of Haryana unit of the All India Kisan Sabha. Prior to his retirement he was a popular leader of the Sarva Karamchari Sangh, the government employees union and the teachers union. The SKS led several powerful movements in the state and Master Sher Singh was always in the forefront. The seat is currently held by the Congress. The peasantry of the area face some severe problems including lack of irrigation and increasing input costs in agriculture. The area is industrially very backward. Caste oppression in all its brutal forms is prevalent in the area and the Party has been fighting against it. CPI(M) Haryana State Secretary, Inderjit Singh said that it is only the red flag and no one else which defends the rights of peasants, workers, employees, women and dalits etc. and appealed to the people to vote for Master Sher Singh. PUNJAB Sukhwinder Singh Sekhon, CPI(M) candidate from Ludhiana Lok Sabha constituency filed his nomination papers on April 3. He was accompanied by the State Secretary Charan Singh Virdi, and Central Committee Member of the CPI(M) Suneet Chopra, along with hundreds of CPI(M) and other Left parties’ workers and supporters. Addressing an impressive rally held prior to the filing of the nomination, Charan Singh Virdi, said that this time all the Left parties in Punjab have entered the poll fray unitedly. Suneet Chopra said that people are fed up with the Congress and the BJP and they want to bring a revolutionary change to get rid of corrupt politics. He also said that Left parties have always fought for the rights of the people. Sekhon, said that the Congress, and the Akali Dal –BJP combine, are making personal attacks on each other to divert attention from real issues concerning the people of Punjab like unemployment, price rise, loot by sand mafia and an alarming rise in the number of drug addicted youth. GUJARAT ON April 7, Singjibhai Katara, CPI(M) candidate from Dahod (ST) Lok Sabha constituency in Gujarat, filed his nomination. Singhjibhai was accompanied by the CPI(M)’s Gujarat state secretary Arun Mehta, state secretariat member Pragjibhai Bhambhi and other leaders of the party when he went to the returning officer to file his nomination papers. Singjibhai Katara contested the Lok Sabha elections in 2009 from Dahod constituency and secured more than 30,000 votes. He has been working among the state’s tribal population for the past 40 years and has been in the forefront of the struggles demanding BPL cards, drinking and irrigation water facilities and filling up of backlog of posts reserved for tribals in Gujarat. Seventy-eight old Katara heads the Gujarat Adivasi Adhikar Manch (GAAM) and is a central committee member of the All India Adivasi Adhikar Manch. He is also the vice president of the Gujarat Kisan Sabha and a member of the state committee of the party in Gujarat. Hundreds of CPI(M) workers and followers gathered at the Dahod bus stand in the sweltering heat on April 7 when Katara went to file his nomination papers. The meeting held on this occasion was addressed by Arun Mehta and Pragjibhai Bhambhi, besides Katara himself.