CPM voters told to abstain

Hyderabad: Though numerically the CPM may have very few voters, so few to make any change to the prospects of any candidate, yet the party’s voters have been directed to stay away from exercising their franchise on December 27 in the MLC elections.

The CPM politburo has directed its voters in Ranga Reddy, Mahbubnagar and Nalgonda districts to abstain from the polls, mainly to avoid the lures, in the form of cash or kind, being offered by TRS leaders to cast their vote in favour of the party’s candidates. However, CPM has decided to extend its support to the CPI candidate Puvvada Nageswara Rao from Khammam.

In a meeting held in Delhi recently in which AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh and CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury took part, it was observed that leaders of the ruling TRS in TS were offering huge sums, '3 lakh to '5 lakh, to each voter to support TRS candidates.

“I don’t know from where they are getting money to purchase votes, offering such huge sums will influence at least a few voters. Instead of allowing our party members to vote and earn a bad name, we have decided to abstain from voting,” Mr Yechury reportedly told Mr Singh.

When Mr Singh sought CPM support for Congress MLC candidates, Mr Yechury reportedly told him “We cannot do that.”

However, CPM state leader S. Veeraiah, when contacted, told this newspaper, “In our recently held meeting at Vizag, it was decided to support candidates of other Left parties and not support bourgeois parties. As per this decision, we are supporting CPI candidate in Khammam. Our party members will vote there, since we have small numbers in Ranga Reddy, Mahbubnagar and Nalgonda districts, neither are we nor CPI is contesting, hence we have decided to issue a whip to our members to abstain from voting.”

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