CPIM candidates for Tamil Nadu assembly bye election

K Rajappan V Perumal

CPIM candidates for Tamil Nadu assembly bye election has been announced. CPI and CPIM has jointly taken the decision to contest 2 seats each out of the 5 seats that is going to the bye election on August. The CPI(M) is contesting Thondamuthur and Cumbum while CPI in Bargur and Srivaikuntam. The Fifth constituency , Ilayankudi seat will be allotted to a "friendly ally", the parties sources said. The CPIM candidates has been announced. The party’s Theni district secretary and state committee member K Rajappan (64) is the candidate for Cumbum constituency. Rajappan, hailing from Seeppalakottai village, completed his PUC at Haji Karutha Rawthar College in Uthamapalayam.He became the member of CPM way back in 1968 and is presently functioning as the district secretary of the party.When Theni was part of Madurai district, district committee secretary of the party and the state secretary of farmers union. IN Thondamuthur constituency the candidate is V Perumal (49), a resident of Periyanaickenpalayam, entered into politics as the member of Democratic Youth Front of India (DYFI), in 1979. He has been a full-time activist of the party from 1989.Presently, he holds the positions of CITU Coimbatore District Engineering Union secretary and the district executive committee member of the party. He is also the state committee member of the State Untouchability Abolition Front. AIDMK, PMK and MDMK had decided to boycott the polls.

Call for Protest Actions Against Price Rise

The Left Parties, the CPI(M), CPI, AIFB and RSP have issued the following statement:

The increase in the prices of essential commodities particularly of food items has become unbearable for the people. The prices of all pulses (dal) have shot up to such an extent, with some varieties priced between Rs. 80 and 100 per kg, that the common people cannot afford them any more. The prices of edible oil, vegetables, rice, wheat and other food items have also been increasing without respite.

The price rise has also been fuelled by the callous decision of the UPA government to increase the prices of petrol and diesel. The prospects of drought in many states due to deficient monsoon will further put pressure on the prices of food items.

The Left parties have decided to jointly conduct an anti-price rise agitation to demand that the government take immediate and effective steps to curb price rise of essential commodities.

The Left parties are instructing their party units to jointly conduct the agitation in the states to mobilise the people against price rise. The major demands are:

1. Provide dal and edible oil at subsidised rates through the public distribution system.

2. Revamp the public distribution system by expanding the BPL category and restore the allocation for the APL categories as an interim measure towards universalisation of PDS.

3. Scrap the increase in the prices of petrol and diesel.

4. Prohibit futures trading in all food related items.

TAMIL NADU - CPI and CPI (M) to contest two seats each in the by-elections

JOINT MOVES: (From left) R. Nallakannu, CPI leader;
D. Pandian, CPI State secretary;
and N. Varadarajan, CPI (M) State secretary,
addressing presspersons in Tiruchi on Friday.

TIRUCHI: The CPI and the CPI (M) on Friday decided to contest the by-elections to the Assembly, taking two seats each and leaving one to a “friendly” party, even as they requested the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam to reconsider its decision to boycott the polls.

The CPI will shortly announce its candidates for the Bargur and Srivaikundam constituencies and the CPI (M) for Thondamuthur and Cumbum.

In case the “friendly” party backs out, one of the two parties will contest the Ilayangudi seat, according to the leaders of the parties. Both parties were prepared for talks on the seats if the AIADMK decides to contest the polls.

Addressing presspersons at the end of the State Committee meetings of their parties, the State secretaries of the CPI and the CPI (M), D. Pandian and N. Varadarajan, maintained that their decision to contest the polls would not cause any problem for the non-Congress, non-BJP alliance in the State.

Though the reasons cited by the AIADMK – misuse of power and perpetration of rowdyism by the ruling party to ensure victory in the parliamentary elections – for boycotting the polls still persists, “we reckon that the situation must be countered politically,” Mr. Varadarajan said.

Mr. Pandian pointed out that boycotting elections would mean letting those misusing democracy go scot-free.

(the Hindu)