Assam elections 2021: CPI to discuss polls in national council meet

New Delhi, Jan 30: A two-day meeting of the CPI''s national council meeting to be held here from Saturday would discuss preparations for the forthcoming Assembly elections in Kerala, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Assam. The meeting would also dwell into the alleged anti- people policies of the NDA government at the Centre, among others. Addressing the CPI''s national executive committee meeting on Friday, the party general secretary D Raja said the Assembly elections are crucial to the CPI. The meeting finalised the agenda for the national council meetings.

"There is a special agenda for the elections in Kerala, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Assam. These polls are critical ones for the Left...", he said. The preparations for the polls would be heard from the respective state leaders during the national council meetings, and the party''s prospects in the elections can be discussed, he said.

While the CPI is a part of the ruling LDF in Kerala, it is a constituent in the Left front in West Bengal.

Congress and the Left have formed an alliance for the polls in the eastern state. In his address, Raja alleged that the NDA government used Parliament to enact a number of anti-worker and anti-farmer laws and the upsurge of working class, peasantry, students and women could be seen across the country against the alleged retrograde policies.

The COVID-19 pandemic hit the country in March last year, but some sources said the virus cases were reported in December or January, he claimed. But the Modi government was busy in organising a welcome party to the then US President Donald Trump, he said. The Assembly elections in Delhi happened around the same time and the BJP-RSS decided to win the poll in the national capital by polarising people, the CPI leader alleged.

The NDA government has been working in the interests of corporate houses, he said. "Using the pandemic as a smokescreen, the government brought out many policies which are really anti-national.

So, we will discuss all these things," he said. Raja further said the BJP''s membership has increased in spite of the pandemic.