CPI-M won't back Kejriwal in Varanasi

The CPI-M has no desire to support AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal in the Lok Sabha election in Varanasi in the absence of a consensus candidate against BJP's Narendra Modi.

According to Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) general secretary Prakash Karat, the Varanasi contest will see various parties pitted against Modi including the Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party, the Congress and Mukhtar Ansari's Quami Ekta Dal.

"Ansari is the mafia don who is in jail who contested as the BSP candidate in the last election in 2009 and came second," Karat said in an article in the CPI-M journal "People's Democracy".

"It is in such a situation that Kejriwal has also joined the fray.

"The CPI-M had announced its candidate a month earlier to contest this seat. If there had been an agreement for a strong common non-Congress secular candidate, the CPI-M would have considered withdrawing from the fray.

"In the absence of such a united platform, it is essential that the Left contests the seat and mount an effective political campaign to expose the RSS-BJP game-plan," Karat said.

Karat also added that by fielding Modi from Varanasi, "the BJP and the RSS are signaling that aggressive Hindutva will underpin the election campaign.

"Modi is the new mascot of the Hindutva communal brigade, just as L.K. Advani was more than two decades ago."