CPI (M) national general secretary Sitaram Yechury on Wednesday said the Left parties and other secular entities are in talks for fielding a common candidate against the BJP nominee for the upcoming presidential election.
“We want the country’s President to be a ‘secular custodian’ of the Constitution who can safeguard democracy, but not a ‘communal’ one. Our efforts are to put up a candidate who is a true representative of the Constitution, lest the country should land in great danger,” Mr. Yechury observed.
Speaking at a Meet-the-Press programme here, he said the Left parties have resolved to stage a massive protest outside Parliament during the monsoon session as part of their endeavour to drum up support against the BJP which was thriving on communal polarisation and caste-based social re-engineering.
Mr. Yechury said the CPI(M) was going to ask the Election Commission to ensure that Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), which have become a subject of controversy following the allegations of tampering and a demonstration given in the Delhi Assembly by an Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA, should compulsorily have paper trails, at the meeting scheduled to be held on May 12.
If recounting becomes essential, it should be done on the basis of the print-outs taken from the machines.
The Supreme Court had directed that funds should be made available to the EC to have the EVMs equipped with the paper but the BJP government had so far not released money and it has no explanation for it.
Electoral reforms
Mr. Yechury said it was high time to have elections conducted in the ‘proportionate representation’ system and a ban imposed on corporate funding of the political parties.
A public fund should be created and kept at the disposal of the EC for State-funding of elections.
He said not less than 12,000 farmers had committed suicide in each one of the last three years.
