Chattisgarh polls: Vote for Congress, defeat 'communal' BJP, says CPI(M)

To prevent the BJP from returning to power in Chhattisgarh, CPI(M) politburo member Surya Kanta Mishra Monday urged party workers to vote for the Congress in the upcoming assembly polls.

On the seats where the Communist Party of India (Marxist) or Left parties do not have a candidate in Chhattisgarh, party workers should vote for the Congress candidates as it is the only alternative against the "communal and anti-people" BJP, Mishra said.

Assembly polls will be held in Chhattisgarh in two phases on November 12 and 20.

"We are contesting on three seats in Chhattisgarh. On those seats, we should fight hard to defeat the communal BJP," Mishra said while addressing a protest rally outside the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) office here.

"But on seats where we don't have any candidates, we should vote in favour of the Congress to stop BJP from returning to power," he added.

Mishra, who is also the secretary of CPI(M) West Bengal unit, said the party should fight hard to defeat both the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Trinamool Congress in the state as both are "two sides of the same coin engaged in competitive communalism".
 

The CPI(M) staged a protest rally outside CBI office over the ongoing tussle in the premier investigating agency and demanded proper probe into the Rafale aircraft deal.

"The BJP government seeks to undermine the secular, democratic foundations of the Indian Constitution, the CBI and other Constitutional authorities and institutions," Mishra said.

"The NDA government at the Centre has systematically subverted all institutions and its efforts to protect the corrupt and to make the CBI its political instrument must be defeated," he said.

Opposition parties, including Congress, have been claiming that the Narendra Modi government bought 36 Rafale fighter aircrafts, built by Dassault Aviation of France, at a much higher price than the one that was being negotiated for 126 aircraft by the previous UPA government.