Chennai: The two left parties in TN will contest nine seats each in the Lok Sabha elections. The lonely comrades, ditched at the eleventh hour by erstwhile ally AIADMK, hope to shed their familiar image as parties of the aged by promising that they would both field young candidates for the April 24 poll.
The lists of poll candidates will be released in a week, said leaders of CPI and CPM told a joint press conference at the state Marxist headquarters here on Friday. “We are contesting in 18 seats including the one in Puducherry. We have decided not to support the BJP, Congress, DMK and AIADMK in the other 22 constituencies,” CPM state secretary G. Ramakrishnan said.
CPI state secretary D. Pandian added that the Left would consider extending support “to any other parties, including the Aam Admi Party (AAP) or individuals if they approached them.
Asked how many seats the Left would allot for women candidates, both the leaders said the lists were under preparation. While CPM will release its list on March 16, the CPI list will be out the following day, they said.
CPI senior R. Nallakannu told Deccan Chronicle that the Left parties would seek to shed their image as being dominated by elder people. “We have some innovative campaign strategies to attract young voters, such as fielding young candidates. Youth will be in the forefront of our campaign. We will wipe out the misconception that the communist parties have only elders,” he said.
The presence of two Left parties could impact the results in a few places. They had contested three seats each in alliance with the AIADMK in 2009 and won one seat each. The AIADMK snapped ties this time as it found it difficult to allot three seats each to the two Left parties.
