With the declaration of schedule for the 2014 lok Sabha elections by the Election Commission of India on Wednesday, some political parties have started approaching other political parties seeking arrangements for fielding common candidates in selected constituencies.
It everything goes as planned, Samajwadi Party (SP) along with Communist Party of India (CPI) and CPI-Marxist and other parties might field common candidate from Tehri lok Sabha seat, said SP State president Dr Satyanarayan Sachan on Wednesday. The party has already declared its candidates in four out of five Parliamentary constituencies in Uttarakhand. But if former Chief Minister ND Tiwari wishes then he can contest election from any parliamentary constituency in the state on the SP ticket, he added.
Dr Sachan said that the party has already declared its candidates’ names for four lok Sabha seats. Avtar Singh will contest election from Nainital parliamentary constituency while Bhagwati Prasad will contest from Almora, Kuldeep Rawat from Pauri and Azmal Shahnawaz from Haridwar seat.
According to him, the party has already terminated Neeraj Chauhan’s candidature from Tehri lok Sabha constituency as he is presently lodged in the Suddhowala jail in connection with case of alleged rape of a woman by suspended additional secretary (home) JP Joshi and counter FIR lodged by him against the woman, Chauhan and others, accusing them of blackmail and attempt to extort Rs three crore for settlement of this case.
The SP State president said, "The Congress-led Central Government has been marred by massive corruption, unprecedented price rise, acute distress of farmers and glaring inequalities. The BJP’s basic policies are no different from those of the Congress. Voters need alternative to the BJP and Congress so we have decided to work with CPI, CPI-M and other parties for defeating Congress and BJP in the lok Sabha election,” he added.
To field the suitable candidate from Tehri lok Sabha seat, the party recently organised a meeting with office bearers of CPI, CPI(M) and others to discuss the fielding of a common candidate from Tehri. Dr Sachan expressed hope that the name of the candidate from Tehri Parliamentary seat will be declared in the second meeting with these party leaders slated to be held on March 7. He further said, “If party fails to secure an alliance with CPI, CPI-M and others, we will deliberate on three names- Om Prakash Bhatt, Dr Rakesh Pathak and Subhash Panwar and one of them will be the SP candidate from Tehri lok Sabha seat.”