CPI(M) meet underway to discuss poll preparations

Having taken a lead role in uniting Left and secular parties ahead of the upcoming parliamentary elections, CPI(M) today began a two-day meet to discuss poll preparations and review the evolving political situation.
The meeting of the party's Central Committee follows days after top leaders of nine parties met here to announce their coming together for Lok Sabha elections.
The crucial meeting will also debate the broad contours of the CPI(M)'s election manifesto, party sources said.
The state units will present reports on the pros and cons of state-level alliances and seat-sharing arrangements with the Left and secular parties to enable the Central Committee to arrive at a conclusion as to how many candidates to nominate and from which constituencies, they said.

The party, which has been carrying out agitations across the country against the 'anti-people, neo-liberal' policies of the Congress-led government and the BJP and communal forces, is likely to include in its manifesto alternative policies on issues ranging from checking price-rise and unemployment to fighting "disruptive and communal" politics.
Maintaining that Lok Sabha elections would be a three-way contest, CPI(M) feels that the non-Congress, anti-BJP combine, providing an alternative policy trajectory, could prove to be a political alternative.
The party has exuded confidence that more regional outfits would join the combination of 11 Left and secular parties ahead of the general elections.