Chennai: ‘Enroll the young’ is the new mantra of the Communist parties in Tamil Nadu for 2014.
After the Che Guevera T-shirts and Facebook campaigns, comrades here have decided to increase the membership of young men and women in their party to succeed in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections and also to change their ‘peasant-class’ identity into a vibrant young party in the state and national political podiums.
Senior leaders in CPI and CPM told DC that they have initiated a head count of young people in their party and charted plans to improve the numbers.
Raising their voices on gender issues, price rise and the economic policies of the Union government, both the Left parties supported several initiatives by the State government in Tamil Nadu, thereby strengthening their alliance with the AIADMK for the 2014 poll.
Organising innumerable protests on issues like untouchability, mismanagement in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and drought relief for delta farmers, CPM party men collected Rs.14 lakh as relief fund for the dalits in Dharmapuri, whose houses and property were vandalised in a mob attack by PMK men in late 2012.
Apart from this, the CPM filed a public interest litigation and ensured that the dalits were given Rs 7 crores for rehabilitation.
As several honour killings were reported, both the parties conducted mass awareness programmes, encouraging inter caste marriages.
Known for their integrity and simplicity, the Left parties brought out irregularities at grassroot-level government offices, which once again strengthened their anti-corruption plank.
It is generally alleged that money power plays a dominant role in ascending in other political parties.
But there are scores of examples of commonest comrades being able to get party tickets for elections to the state assembly and Parliament from the Left parties.
There are many examples – Leema Rose, a brick kiln worker, who won in the Thiruvattar constituency in 2006, carried out her work sincerely as an MLA.
