LUCKNOW: The Communist Party of India has fielded nine candidates for the Lok Sabha polls in Uttar Pradesh and has plans to nominate candidates in a couple of more seats in the state, a party leader said Thursday.
On the other hand, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has made it clear that it will not field any candidate in Uttar Pradesh, and will instead extend support to the SP-BSP-RLD alliance in the state.
CPI's Uttar Pradesh unit Secretary Girish said, "At the commencement of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, our leaders approached all the secular parties including the Congress, and the SP-BSP-RLD alliance since our only target is to defeat the BJP."
"Since none of the political parties gave us any concrete assurance, we had to field as many as nine candidates in the state. The party will field two to three more candidates," he said.
Apart from senior CPI leader Atul Kumar Anjan who will fight in Ghosi Lok Sabha seat, the party has fielded candidates in Robertsganj, Khiri, Banda, Bareilly, Ballia, Shahjahanpur, Lalganj and Gorakhpur.
In 2014, the CPI had fielded eight candidates in the state, but all of them lost. In the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections too the party had fielded 58 candidates, but none of them won.
Meanwhile, CPI(M) politburo member Suhasini Ali said, "Our party is extending support to the candidates of the SP-BSP-RLD alliance and will mobilise opinion against the BJP."
On whether the CPI(M) will extend support to CPI candidates in the state, Ali, a former MP from Kanpur, said, "I do not want to comment on this. I know that our party will support the candidates of the alliance to defeat the BJP."