Announcing their decision to contest the Delhi assembly polls early next year, the Left parties on Thursday announced candidates for five seats and released a joint manifesto promising “full statehood to Delhi”.
The parties – CPI(M), CPI and CPI(ML) also expressed their desire to contest more seats.
The CPI(M) has fielded Delhi High Court advocates Ashok Aggarwal and Jagdish Chand from Karawal Nagar and Badarpur respectively. The CPI(ML) has announced Anil Kumar as planning to contest the Narela two seats, while the candidate for the Kondli seat is yet to be announced.
CPI has announced Shejo Varghese from Vikas Puri and Dalip Kumar from Palam seat.
This is the sixth time that the CPI(M) has fielded a candidate from Karwal Nagar in the last five assembly elections. In 2020, the CPI(M) contested three seats including Karawal Nagar, Badarpur and Wazirpur. Chand also contested on a CPI(M) ticket from Badarpur in 2020, polling 683 votes in the constituency, which was lower than NOTA’s polling of 750.
Dalip also contested from Palam on a CPI ticket in 2020 and secured 484 votes, which was less than the 848 NOTA votes. In 2020, CPI had contested from three seats, Timarpur, Palam and Bawana.
Forward Bloc and CPI are expected to announce more candidates in the coming days.
In addition to giving Delhi full statehood “with full protection of the linguistic and caste rights of the people of all the States”, the Joint Declaration promised to decentralize and expand municipal services, replace the New Delhi Municipal Council with an elected body, and transfer Powers to urban local bodies.
The parties have also made an urban employment guarantee plan to provide unemployment allowance, ensure the minimum income of each unemployed person, raise and expand the social welfare pension from Rs 2,500 to Rs 10,000 per month.
In the housing and transport sector, the parties have promised to restore and regularize slums, expand public transport and reduce metro fares, set limits on private vehicles, make new policies to regulate the number of private vehicles, etc.
The manifesto added that if elected to power, the parties would “promote a cohesive culture in Delhi, build communal harmony, amity” and “take strict action against those who spread communal hatred and curb the activities of communal organisations” as well as “repeal the CAA/NPR/NRC”. .
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