NEW DELHI: The Communist Party of India (CPI) on Monday announced the names of candidates for four Lok Sabha constituencies in Jharkhand after the discussion on seat-sharing couldn’t materialize with the Congress. According to the party leaders, the Congress had conveyed its ‘difficulties’ in sparing seats for the Left party hence it decided to go ahead solo in the state.
CPI Jharkhand secretary Mahendra Pathak informed that Abhay Bhuiyan had been nominated from Palamu Lok Sabha seat and Mahendra Oraon is candidate from Lohardaga. The party has given ticket to Arjun Kumar from Chatra and Rajesh Kumar Kisku from Dumka parliamentary constituency.
The state has 14 Lok Sabha seats including five reserved for Schedule Tribe (ST) and one for Schedule Caste. At present, the CPI has no representation in the Lower House of Parliament from Jharkhand.
The names of the candidates were announced during a meeting on Sunday. The CPI general secretary D Raja said that as of now the party had decided to contest just on four seats.
“We tried seat sharing with the Congress but it just didn’t happen. The Congress has expressed its difficulties. We can’t keep ourselves away from electoral battle, therefore we have announced candidates for four seats in the state,” said Raja.
However, according to the state leaders, the party may contest on eight Lok Sabha seats and soon announce candidates for four more seats - Hazaribag, Koderma, Ranchi, Godda or Jamshedpur.
The CPI is part of the opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) has already announced its candidate for the Rajmahal Lok Sabha seat. It decided to fight the parliamentary polls on two seats- Rajmahal and Chatra--and support INDIA bloc candidates in the remaining 12 seats.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation has also named Bagodar MLA Vinod Kumar Singh as their candidate from Koderma Lok Sabha constituency. The party claimed that Singh would be an INDIA bloc candidate from Koderma.
The Left parties are contesting on five seats in the neighbouring Bihar as per the seat sharing arrangement finalized among the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Congress and Left. The CPL-Marxist-Lenin (CPI-ML) has been given three seats - Arrah, Karakat and Nalanda and the CPI has got just one-- Begusarai –seat. The CPM has been allocated Khagaria parliamentary constituency.
CPI secretary D Raja said that the party might announce names of candidates for other states soon.
