The Hindu : CPI(M) to campaign for `strongest secular' candidate

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Nov 26, 2002

National

National

CPI(M) to campaign for `strongest secular' candidate

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI NOV. 25. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has said that it stands for the ``widest unity'' of all the secular forces to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Gujarat Assembly elections and that the thrust of its campaign would be to seek support for the ``strongest secular candidate.''

While the CPI (M) did not say categorically that it would campaign for the Congress in the December 12 elections, its general secretary, Harkishan Singh Surjeet, said the "election campaign should be so conducted as to mobilise the people in every constituency to support the strongest secular candidate to defeat the BJP.''

Briefing correspondents on the deliberations of the party's three-day central committee meeting which ended on Sunday, Mr. Surjeet admitted that the Opposition's understanding to engage the BJP in a one-to-one contest did not come through. However, he parried a question on whether the Congress was to blame for the inability of the Opposition to organise itself.

On Uttar Pradesh, the CPI (M) reiterated the demand that the Governor convene a session of the Legislative Assembly to determine whether the Mayawati Government enjoyed a majority. It alleged that the Vajpayee Government was ``conniving'' in the attack on democracy in the State. The results of the Jammu and Kashmir elections had heightened the expectations of the people for the restoration of peace, the central committee said.

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