CPI to contest 20 Assembly seats in MP

Bhopal, Sep 20 (UNI) The Communist Party of India will field 20 candidates in the coming Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, its State Secretary Mahendra Vajpai told reporters here today.

The election strategy was discussed at the state executive committee meeting and it was decided to concentrate in at least 10 constituencies where the party nominees could either win or pose a tough fight, he said adding Kotma, Khargone, Rajpur, Bhagawanpura, Ujjain-North and Singrauli would be crucial for the party.

The party could do better in Indore-Two, Gwalior, Satna, Guna and Rewa, Mr Vajpai said, adding the party contested for 16 seats in the last Assembly polls. This time, the party decided to contest four more seats in view of party's growing popularity, he said.

Despite the Samajwadi Party's sudden decision to quit third front, he said, hectic parleys were on at the national level to regroup the like-minded parties and the possibility of including Bahujan Samaj Party in the front would boost the morale.

The CPI was also envisaging to form an alternate of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress in Madhya Pradesh too, Mr Vajpai said.

Mr Vajpai also criticised the BJP and the Sangh Parivar for fanning communal disharmony in several areas in the country including Madhya Pradesh and condemned setting afire a church in Jabalpur.

''The BJP has been doing such act to extract mileage at the hustings and appease the Hindu voters'', Mr Vajpai alleged.

He also lamented that other than the left parties and to some extent the Congress, all other secular-minded parties did not condemn the attack apprehending to lose the majority votes. Such parties did not carry out their secular responsibility'', the veteran communist leader alleged.

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