Change the government, transform Bihar: CPI-ML election manifesto

Dubbing the BJP “a party of horrors,” CPI-ML General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya said that the BJP-ruled states in the country have ‘super jungle raj’ at the moment.

The left leader was addressing an election rally in Muktapur in Bihar’s Samastipur district and was reacting to the statement by BJP leaders that the ‘jungle raj’ would return if the Grand Alliance won the Bihar Assembly elections.

“You can see in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh where mob lynching, rapes, murders, fake encounters are frequently happening every day. The crimes in the BJP-ruled states are 10 times higher compared with so-called jungle raj of the RJD rule,” he said.

The CPIML is contesting 19 seats in conjunction with a broader opposition alliance. 

Bhattacharya said he believes farmers have reached a horrifying position in the country due to the bad policies of the BJP-led government at the Centre.

“The agriculture sector and farmers have reached a dead end and Ambani and Adani are ruling the country,” the left the leader said.

CPI-ML also released its manifesto for the state assembly elections slated for late October and November this year with a focus on the agriculture and jobs.

The manifesto promised to implement the recommendations of the D Bandopadhyay Commission report which has made a series of recommendations in the matter of land and agrarian reforms.

The left party’s manifesto also promised to make the right to healthcare a justiciable right through the enactment of appropriate legislations at the State level for the people of Bihar.

“Such legislation should ensure universal and free access to good quality and comprehensive health care including the entire range of primary, secondary and tertiary services for the entire population of Bihar,” it said.

“Despite tall claims of economic growth and infrastructural development, Bihar still remains trapped in chronic poverty, persistent economic backwardness and abysmally weak public education and public health facilities. The pain suffered by millions of migrant workers and students of Bihar in the lockdown has revealed before the whole world the reality of jobless growth and the continuing migration of workers and students in search of better employment and education opportunities. The agenda of development in Bihar cannot be reduced to an assortment of sundry schemes that do not even impact the surface and shy away from addressing the roots of any major and persistent problem. The agenda of development must be firmly anchored in the context of people’s empowerment and social transformation and guided by the constitutional commitments of justice, liberty, equality and fraternity. With this forward-looking vision of hope and change, CPI(ML) presents its 2020 poll manifesto as a charter of the party’s enduring commitment to a better deal for the people of Bihar,” reads the statement.

CPI-ML emerged as the third-largest party in Bihar Legislative Assembly Election 2015. The party contested jointly along with CPI, CPI(M), RSP, Forward Block, and SUCI(C) as a third alternative to the NDA and the Grand Alliance of Lalu Prasad Yadav and Nitish Kumar.