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Himachal Pradesh Elections: necessary to keep BJP out of power, says CPIM leader Sitaram Yechuri
Himachal Pradesh Elections 2022: The CPIM secretary-general Sitaram Yechuri said the CPIM will support a non-BJP party in case there is a hung assembly.
Communist Party of India-Marxist secretary-general Sitaram Yechuri on Tuesday said that people must elect left party candidates if they want their voices to be raised and heard in the state assembly.
Addressing a press conference at Shimla, Yechuri said people were asking questions that if the CPI(M) was contesting only 11-12 seats, then how can it form a government?
“Question is not of forming the government, but there should be someone in the assembly to raise people’s problems and put pressure on the government in power,” he said.
He said that given the situation in the country and state, it was necessary to keep BJP out of power.
The former Rajya Sabha member said that unemployment, inflation and Old Pension Scheme (OPS) were the main issues in this election.
“Unemployment, of course, is the biggest issue. There are 10 lakh vacancies in the central government departments and army, but the government is not filling these posts,” he alleged.
Before this election, he said, the central government promised to give 10 lakh jobs in the next one-and-a-half year, whereas earlier, they had promised 2 crore jobs.
“On top of it, they have brought Agnipath and expect Himachal’s jawans to sacrifice their lives for four years of service, and without pension and other facilities,” he said.
He said there is an alternative to create jobs and that is to stop waiving off tax for industrialists and recover the 10 lakh crore loans they owe to the banks.
“If this money was spent on the infrastructure development, crores of jobs could be created,” he said.
He said if OPS could not be implemented, the real culprits were BJP and the central government.
Some states have proclaimed to restore the OPS but it’s nothing more than an announcement because to implement OPS, the money employees have contributed to the NPS must be returned to the state.
“However, the centre is not returning the money and creating hindrance in the implementation of the OPS,” he alleged.
He said inflation has made the life of common people difficult. Today, the prices of gas and other commodities have risen exponentially,’ he said, adding that farmers are not getting fair prices for their produce while traders were reaping profits, and Himachal’s apple industry is the biggest example of this.
The CPIM secretary-general also accused the BJP of trying to polarize the society by talking about Uniform Civil Code, the results of which could be disastrous for the country and Himachal.
Replying to a question, Yechuri said the CPIM will support a non-BJP party in case there is a hung assembly.
