Yechury re-elected CPI-M General Secretary
Hyderabad, April 22: The CPI-M on Sunday unanimously re-elected Sitaram Yechury as its General Secretary for another three years and he pledged to take steps to oust the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Yechury's re-election took place on the last day of the party's 22nd Congress here, Communist Party of India-Marxist leader and former Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar announced.
Sarkar said Yechury, 65, was elected by a 95-member new Central Committee, which also elected a 17-member new Politburo.
"Yechury's election was unanimous. There was no contest," Sarkar told IANS.
Yechury, who has been a member of the CPI-M since 1974 when he joined its student wing, was first elected the CPI-M General Secretary in 2015.
Born in Chennai, Yechury was educated in Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University, a city where he has spent most of his life.
Re-elected to the top post a year ahead of the general elections, Yechury said the CPI-M's first goal was to oust the BJP-RSS Modi government.
In his address to the party delegates from across the country, he assured them that he would try to fulfil the immense responsibility of this office to the best of his capability.
The five-day conclave saw the groups led by Yechury and former General Secretary Prakash Karat agreeing to amendments in the draft political resolution.
The resolution, while ruling out a political alliance with the Congress party, made it clear that it was ready for an understanding with that party. It reiterated that its first and foremost goal was to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party.
The CPI-M, the largest party of the Left, has faced electoral reverses in West Bengal and more recently in Tripura. It is now in power in only Kerala.
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Sambhal violence orchestrated by BJP, govt to divert attention from poll rigging: Akhilesh Yadav
Lucknow (PTI): Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday alleged the violence in Uttar Pradesh's Sambhal district over the survey of a mosque was "orchestrated" by the BJP, the government and the administration "to divert attention from electoral malpractice".
Police used tear gas and "minor force" in the face of stone pelting by locals in Sambhal on Sunday as tension escalated during a second survey of the Mughal-era mosque, claimed to be originally the site of an ancient Hindu temple.
Ten people have been detained and a probe was launched into the violence, an official said.
Tension has been brewing in Sambhal over the past few days after the Jama Masjid was surveyed last Tuesday on the orders of a local court following a petition that claimed that a Harihar temple stood at the site.
A day after the Uttar Pradesh bypoll results were declared and the Samajwadi Party managed to win just two seats while the BJP and its ally RLD bagged the other seven, Yadav levelled serious allegations against the police and administration.
"A serious incident occurred in Sambhal. A survey team was deliberately sent in the morning to disrupt discussions about the elections. The intention was to create chaos so that no debate on election issues could happen," the Samajwadi Party chief claimed.
Citing reports, he said several people were injured in the violence in Sambhal and asked when a survey of the mosque was already done, why was a new survey conducted again and "that too in the morning and without preparation?"
"I don't want to go into the legal or procedural aspects, but the other side was not even heard. This was intentionally done to provoke emotions and avoid discussions on election rigging," Yadav said.
"What happened in Sambhal was orchestrated by the BJP, the government and the administration to divert attention from electoral malpractices," the former UP chief minister alleged.
Asserting that in democracy, true victory comes from the people, not the system, he said, "The new democracy created by the BJP ensures that people cannot vote while the system dominates."
He added that whenever an impartial investigation takes place, and the truth comes out through booth recordings and CCTV footage, it will be evident that "voters did not cast their votes and someone else became the voter inside the booth".
Yadav claimed that on the polling day, the police and the administration removed the Samajwadi Party's almost all booth agents and many supporters who wanted to vote.
"If voters were prevented from voting, then who cast the votes? If Samajwadi Party votes didn't reach those booths and our candidate didn't get support, then who voted there? This is a serious issue," he said.
"Additionally, there were two types of slips, -- one with a red mark and another regular slip. We raised this issue on the voting day itself, stating that the administration had created such arrangements, leading to discrimination," Yadav alleged.
The Samajwadi Party's candidate for the Kundarki assembly bypoll Haji Rizwan too has alleged that his supporters were prevented from voting.
The BJP's Ramveer Singh won the bypoll in the Kundarki seat by a margin of over 1.45 lakh votes.
