LS polls: CPI(M) appeals to Jammu electorate to vote for secular candidates

The CPI(M) Tuesday appealed to the people of Jammu to exercise their franchise in favour of the secular dispensation led by the Congress.

The Jammu and Baramulla parliamentary constituencies will go to polls in the first phase of the five-phased elections in the state on April 11.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist), regional committee, Jammu made the appeal at a meeting chaired by its regional secretary Sham Prasad Kesar here, a party release said.

"The committee pleaded that befitting reply needs to be given by the electorate in the ensuing parliamentary elections in Jammu region against the present anti-people and communal dispensation at the centre led by BJP," the statement said.

"It becomes the prime responsibility of the people to vote against the forces who are hell bent to destroy the age-old pluralistic character of our great nation," it added.

The Congress has fielded former minister Raman Bhalla against the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Jugal Kishore who is seeking re-election from the Jammu parliamentary constituency.

Besides them, there are 22 other candidates in the fray, including national panthers party patron Bhim Singh and former BJP minister and Dogra Swabhiman Sangathan founder Choudhary Lal Singh.

Union minister Jitendra Singh is pitted against 11 candidates from Udhampur Lok Sabha seat, prominent among them being Congress candidate and scion of Dogra Dynasty Vikramadatiya Singh, Choudhary Lal Singh and National Panthers Party chairman Harsh Dev Singh.

The Udhampur constituency is going to polls in the second phase along with Srinagar seat on April 18.

The CPI(M) said to maintain the unity of the three regions of the state-- Kashmir, Ladakh and Jammu, it is the prime duty of the people to safeguard the diversity, age-old plural ethos and social fabric by negating the "parochial, divisive and communal politics" altogether by exercising their franchise in favour of Congress candidates in the region.