On 15-16 February, CPI(ML) held a cadre meeting in Kakinada. The cadre meet called for an intensive campaign with the demand for the Government to confiscate all lands from corrupt corporates like Satyam, as well as those lands grabbed by MNCs and other corporations for SEZs and should redistribute them among the poor. The meet called for militant land struggles to restore such land to the poor, should the Government fail to do so. The campaign would also demand a white paper on the underhand relations and political patronage between Satyam, Chandrababu Naidu and YSR Reddy. The campaign will take place between 21 February-7 March, involving padyatras, meetings, and street corner meetings, will also raise demands related to implementation of NREGA and BPL. At all Block HQs, rallies will be held on 2 March.
The cadre meet also planned for CPI(ML)’s intervention in the forthcoming elections to Assembly and Parliament. CPI(ML) will be contesting Assembly seats in Srikakulam (at Palasa, historic centre of the Srikakulam struggle), Rayalseema, Telengana and Khammam. Speaking at the cadre meet, CPI(ML) State Secretary Comrade N Moorthy called upon the party ranks to assert the revolutionary legacy of the party. He said the party would remind people of Congress’ history of betrayal of the Telengana region – right from the time of the Nizam down to the present day. Andhra Pradesh was looking for a revival of the legacy of revolutionary struggles of Srikakulam and Telengana, he said.
Party PBM Swadesh Bhattacharya, the main speaker at the cadre meet, said that in AP, CPI(ML) had on several occasions been part of loose formations of Left platforms ranging from CPI and CPI(M) to various ML groups. In the forthcoming elections, he said the party would call on all Left forces to strengthen the Left by cooperating with each other. However, he said, it seemed that the CPI and CPI(M) were yet to make up their minds and still seemed to be making a choice between tailing behind TDP on the one hand and Chiranjeevi’s Prajarajyam on the other. At the same time, he said the Maoists, who had in the last Assembly polls, supported the Congress, and this time too, it was a matter of common discussion that they might support one of the ruling formations. He reminded that after all, Prajarajyam too consisted of former Congress and TDP leaders – and all these forces stood tried, tested, and exposed among the people of AP.
Cadre meets were also held between 17-19 February at Pippili 9Puri), Satyavadi, Chilika and Kendrapada in Orissa.
