Maharastra: Election Campaign Launched

The Maharashtra State Committee of the Party launched its election campaign with a mass rally at Solapur on August 6, 2014. Attended by nearly 3,000 people, predominantly youth, the enthusiastic participants came from all over Solapur city and also from the adjoining rural areas. Most of them were working class youth and came from varied backgrounds.

 

Addressing the rally, CPI(M) Central Secretariat Member, Nilotpal Basu, observed that policies pursued by the Modi Government were no different from those of the previous Congress-led UPA regime. With the increase in railway passenger fares, freight charges, diesel and petrol, and all other essential commodities, people were realizing that there was little difference between the Narendra Modi and Manmohan Singh regimes.

 

On top of all this was the conscious pursuit of the communal agenda after the assumption to power by the BJP. However, he said the big difference this time was that their communalization drive had the full support of the corporate lobby. He called upon the people to understand all these challenges and to work vigorously to ensure the victory of the CPI(M) in this election.

 

CPI(M) State Secretary Dr Ashok Dhawale said that the Congress regimes in both centre and state did nothing to ensure minimum  living wages and social security to the lakhs of unorganized workers of Solapur and Maharashtra.  Corruption in Maharashtra has also increased by leaps and bounds, as seen in the Adarsh Society scam, the irrigation scam, the co-operative sector scam and so on, in all of which not only Congress-NCP but also Shiv Sena-BJP leaders were involved, he pointed out.

 

Recalling the dastardly murder in Pune of a young It professional Mohsin Shaikh who hailed from Solapur, and the shocking incident of Shiv Sena MPs force-feeding a fasting Muslim employee of the Maharashtra Sadan in New Delhi, he called on the rally to fight communalism of all types and to defend secularism and communal harmony.

 

CPI(M) candidate for the Solapur seat, Narsayya Adam, said that both the Congress-NCP combine and the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance had made a mess of Solapur city and district. He said that it is only alternative policies propounded by the Left and secular forces that can save Maharashtra. He called upon the rally to reject the communal forces and the anti-people policies of both the Congress and BJP regimes and to ensure the victory of the Left forces. The rally was presided over by veteran Party leader Allahbaksh Patel