THE three-day 22nd Assam state conference of the CPI(M) concluded at Silpagram in Guwahati on February 6, with a clarion call to intensify the struggle against neo-liberal economic policies and the politics of communal divide being pursued by the present ruling dispensation both at the centre and in the state, and to build up a Left-democratic alternative. The conference started with a huge public rally on February 4 at Sonaram H S School ground. More than 15,000 people belonging to different religious, linguistic and ethnic groups attended the rally.

 IN West Bengal, the TMC has just won Uluberia Lok Sabha bye election and Noapara assembly bye election. In Uluberia, they have won with a margin of more than 4 lakhs. In Noapara, the difference is more than 63 thousand. It is being touted as a ‘big victory for the development policies of Mamata government’. Even a section of secular political forces are bewildered by these ‘huge’ margins.The fact remains that not even a semblance of free and fair voting took place in both the constituencies. Hundreds of armed TMC activists, even ‘voters’ were imported from different sections.

A protest was organised on 5th February in Delhi against the anti people budget of the Modi government. Comrade Md Salim, CPI(M) MP and Polit Bureau Member addressed the gathering along with comrades K. M. Tewari and others.The speakers said that this is nothing but a jumla budget. Nothing in this budget will provide relief to common people and it is a budget to benefit the big corporates and capitalists.

A memorial meeting for CPI(M) Central Committee member and Tripura Left Front chairman Khagen Das was organised at Rabindra Shatabarshiki Bhavan in Agartala on January 24. Das died in the early hours of January 20 in Kolkata where he had participated in the meeting of the Central Committee.

AS Tripura goes into a crucial assembly election, there is a red alert for the people of the state as well as around the country.  An unscrupulous party ruling at the centre hell-bent on grabbing power in Tripura by hook or by crook, an alliance between this party and a tribal separatist outfit known for its violent deeds, a stream of central ministers and other bigwigs visiting the state and denouncing the Left Front, enormous inflow of money to run the election campaign, use of central powers to tilt the local bureaucracy and security forces – and a steady increase in killings and violenc