By IANS,
Hyderabad : Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Monday announced candidates for two assembly constituencies in next month’s by-elections, but once again postponed the decision on alliance with other parties.
CPI-M announced that it would contest Musheerabad seat in the state capital and Chiryala seat in Warangal district. While S. Veeraiah will be the party candidate in Musheerabad, A. Malla Reddy will contest the other seat.
By-elections to four Lok Sabha and 18 assembly seats are scheduled May 29. The parliamentary and 16 assembly seats fell vacant after Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) legislators resigned last month to protest delay on part of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in granting separate statehood to the Telangana region.
By-polls to two assembly constituencies were necessitated by the death of sitting legislators of ruling Congress party and the main opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP).
The elections are crucial for all the parties, especially TRS ahead of the next year’s elections to state assembly and Lok Sabha.
The by-polls are also significant as TRS, Communist Party of India (CPI) and CPI-M, which fought 2004 elections in alliance with Congress party, have parted ways. CPI has announced that it will field candidates from two assembly constituencies and is exploring the possibility of contesting two more seats.
The Left parties have decided to have mutual alliance in the constituencies where they are fielding their candidates. However, they were yet to decide on their strategy in the remaining constituencies. The talks between the two parties on the issue remained inconclusive.
CPI-M state secretary B.V. Raghavulu told newsmen that the party politburo would take a decision in a day or two.
Both Congress and TDP had offered to leave couple of seats to the Left parties. However, the CPI and CPI-M decided to maintain equidistance from both the parties.
There is a strong possibility that CPI-M might back TDP in other constituencies as its national congress recently called for setting up of an alternative to non-Congress and non-BJP parties.
CPI-M had bagged nine seats and CPI six seats in the 294-member state assembly in 2004 elections.