Date:17/05/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/17/stories/2008051753280400.htm

Karnataka - Gulbarga

CPI(M) backs Congress in Gulbarga district

Special Correspondent

To support Congress candidates in 12 of the 13 segments

GULBARGA: The Congress received the much-needed boost in Gulbarga with the Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Friday announcing its support to the Congress candidates in 12 of the 13 Assembly constituencies in the district.

State Secretary of the CPI(M) V.J.K. Nair announced this at a press conference here and said that in all the constituencies except Gulbarga (Rural), where the party has fielded its state secretariat member Maruti Manpade, the party had decided to extend its support to the Congress candidates with the intention of defeating the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Mr. Nair said that it was the Congress which had the potential to defeat the BJP and his party, by extending its support, wanted to avert the split of the anti-BJP votes in the district.

He said the party was confident of the victory of Mr. Manpade in Gulbarga Rural constituency.

Mr. Nair said that CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury would be campaigning for Mr. Manpade in Gulbarga Rural Assembly constituency on May 18. Mr. Yechury would address public meetings at Kamalanagar, Srinivas Saradgi and Shahabad town.

Referring to the Bellary incident in which the former Minister Sriramulu being booked for allegedly assaulting a Congress worker, Mr. Nair said that this incident exposed the BJP’s nexus with the criminal elements.