Left warns its exit from grand alliance could divide opposition votes

  • | Monday | 25th March, 2019

This approach by mahagathbandhan allies is likely to divide the opposition votes and indirectly help the BJP .”Mehta added that the Left parties requested the mahagathbandhan to leave Hazaribag seat for CPI, but that too was turned down. On Sunday, the Left Front parties told the media that they will announce the candidates soon. Ranchi: Moments after the mahagathbandhan announced its seat-sharing formula for the Lok Sabha polls on Sunday, the Left Front reiterated their decision to contest from at least four parliamentary constituencies. “Our general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya will declare the names of the candidates after a meeting with party workers,” Prasad said.He added that ignoring the Left parties could cost the opposition alliance in the Lok Sabha election. Despite knowing that we have a strong base in Koderma, the Congress asked us to let go of it.

Ranchi: Moments after the mahagathbandhan announced its seat-sharing formula for the Lok Sabha polls on Sunday, the Left Front reiterated their decision to contest from at least four parliamentary constituencies. Blaming the Congress for scuttling the Left parties’ entry to the mahagathbandhan, CPI state secretary Bhubaneswar Prasad Mehta said, “The CPI-ML candidate for Koderma seat, Raj Kumar Yadav, came second in the 2014 Lok Sabha election. Despite knowing that we have a strong base in Koderma, the Congress asked us to let go of it. This approach by mahagathbandhan allies is likely to divide the opposition votes and indirectly help the BJP .”Mehta added that the Left parties requested the mahagathbandhan to leave Hazaribag seat for CPI, but that too was turned down. “Our party leaders will meet in Ranchi on March 28 to chalk out the next course of action,” Mehta said.Earlier, the Left constituents — CPM, CPI, CPI-ML and Marxist Coordination Committee (MCC) — walked out of the mahagathbandhan after it was decided to allot seats only to Congress, JMM , JVM-P and RJD. On Sunday, the Left Front parties told the media that they will announce the candidates soon. Sources said the CPI could be contesting from Hazaribag, CPI-ML from Koderma and Palamu and CPM from Rajmahal . The leaders said they will help each other’s candidate to ensure victory in these four seats while stating that they will be supporting the strongest candidate against the BJP in places where they won’t be contesting.CPI-ML state secretary Janardan Prasad said the party could announce its candidates from Koderma and Palamu seats on Monday. “Our general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya will declare the names of the candidates after a meeting with party workers,” Prasad said.He added that ignoring the Left parties could cost the opposition alliance in the Lok Sabha election. “We have presence in at least 10 parliamentary constituencies in the state. We have jointly secured 4.5% of the votes in the previous Lok Sabha election,” Prasad said.CPM general secretary G K Bakshi said his party will organise a meeting soon to discuss the issue. CPM is aiming to fight from Rajmahal seat where it got over 60,000 votes in 2014. “The Marxist Coordination Committee will also hold a meeting and chalk out further strategy,” said MCC’s central committee member Sushanto Mukherjee.Earlier this month, JMM working president Hemant Soren had stressed the need for keeping Left parties within the mahagathbandhan during his meeting with Congress chief Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi also attended by JVM-P president Babulal Marandi and RPN Singh ( Jharkhand in-charge of Congress).

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