India's Communists consolidate rural gains

The Tripura state committee of the Communist Party of India 
(M) has called on its branches to step up their political and 
organisational drive to consolidate the ongoing support of 
political forces throughout rural Tripura in favour of the Left 
Front. This support was reflected in the massive mandate the Left 
Front received in the elections to the state's three-tier 
panchayati raj held last month.

At the same time, the Party has decided to involve the people in 
the process of more transparently implementing the development 
programmes of the panchayat bodies, and to gear up the political, 
ideological and organisational drive against extremists.

Right now, the Party is making efforts to rally the people behind 
the 11-point charter of demands for the August 25-31 campaign, to 
be followed by massive state-wide, anti-imperialist programmes on 
September 1.

Reviewing the July 18 panchayat polls in Tripura, the party 
extended revolutionary greetings to the people for giving a 
massive mandate to the Left Front on the one hand, and trouncing 
the Congress party on the other.

This time, the Left Front has won a larger number of seats than 
in the 1999 panchayat polls. The party also hailed the 
outstanding pro-active role of women in favour of the Left Front 
in this vital electoral battle.

The party statement said the Left Front government and the Left 
Front-led panchayats were able to massively mobilise the people 
in rural Tripura, by virtue of the implementation of pro-people 
development programmes. The Congress party's undemocratic 
activities and its muck-raking, anti-Left slander campaign, with 
the all-out assistance of a section of press, failed miserably to 
mislead the state's politically seasoned rural electorate. They 
are now even more alienated from the people.

The outlawed extremists, too, chipped in by carrying out a few 
killings as part of the conspiracy to trigger terror and turmoil 
with a view to disrupting free and fair polls. But everywhere the 
people's alertness and extensive security arrangements foiled the 
extremists' bid to disrupt the polls.

At the same time, the CPI(M) reviewed the Left Front's loss of a 
few incumbents this year due to organisational deficiencies, and 
has decided to take appropriate political-organisational measures 
following a further round of review later.

It also called for organisation of meetings and rallies against 
imperialism and war on September 1.