BHUBANESWAR: Even as the Central committee of CPI (M) has taken the stand to have no electoral alliance with Congress or any other party at national level, State unit of the party has decided to go for seat adjustment with Pradesh Congress for 2019 Assembly elections.“The State committee of CPM has decided to contest in at least 12 Assembly seats, including Bonai, where it has a sitting MLA. However, a final decision will be taken after discussion with the Congress and CPI,” said senior CPM leader and former general secretary of party Janardan Pati.
After thorough deliberation on the political situation in the State during the two-day meeting of the party here, CPM decided to contest in limited seats where it has strength and chances of wining with supports from Left and democratic forces opposed to both the BJD and BJP, he said.
Congress, being the principal opposition to the ruling BJD in the State and regaining its strength very fast under the leadership of Niranjan Patnaik, the Left support to the former will further consolidate its position and brighten the prospects of wining more number of seats.
“Since our sole objective will be to defeat the BJD and BJP, an electoral understanding with the Congress becomes a necessity. We hope the Congress will respond to the need of the occasion,” Pati said.Claiming that the ruling BJD is losing its popularity for its misrule, corruption at all levels of administration and failure to address core issues like unemployment and agrarian crisis, the CPM leader said it will not be easy this time for the regional party to retain its political supremacy.
The corruption issues raised by expelled BJD leader and former minister Damodar Rout and silence of the State Government has caused extensive damage to the BJD.The euphoria generated by BJP after the 2014 elections which paid them a rich dividend in the last year panchayat polls has petered out due to price rise, growing unemployment and Narendra Modi Government’s failure to keep any of its poll promises, Pati said.“We understand our limitations. We are working for consolidation of Left and other democratic forces to achieve our objectives,” he said.