Ramgarh bypoll: Left parties to back UPA

RANCHI: Six Left parties of the state have extended support to Congress candidate Bajrang Mahto in the ensuing Ramgarh assembly bypolls on February 27 with the objective to defeat the NDA candidate.
The Left parties, including Communist Party of India, Communist Party of India (Marxist), Forward Block, Marxist Coordination Committee and the Revolutionary Socialists Party, took the decision during an online meeting on Tuesday.
Bypoll in Ramgarh was necessitated after Congress MLA Mamta Devi was convicted in connection to a rioting case in 2016. She is currently serving five-year jail term since December 2022. The Congress has named her husband Bajrant Mahto as a joint candidate of ruling UPA. NDA, on the other hand, has fielded Ajsu-P’s Giridih MP Chandra Prakash Chaudhary’s wife Sunita.
According to Left parties, Mamta Devi had to allegedly go to jail and lose her membership while fighting against the displacement of farmers by the Inland Power Limited in 2016. Mamta hailed from ruling Congress which is in power in alliance with JMM and RJD.
The Left parties said the NDA government adopted a repressive policy against the agitators and two of the farmers were killed in the police firing. They further said that it was on the NDA government’s direction that cases were registered against Devi and other landholders and they were convicted. CPI-M state secretary Prakahs Viplav said, “The NDA is trying to win this seat in order to carry forward its politics of hatred but the intelligent voters of Ramgarh would not allow them to do so.
All Left parties have appealed to the voters to support the Congress candidate.” The CPI, which had earlier announced its intention to contest the byelections, said that it has supported the Congress in order to stop the division of secular votes in the assembly. Former MP Bhuwaneshwar Mehta said, “The secular votes would get divided if the party puts up its candidate. It would directly favour the NDA candidate. So, CPI has decided not to fight the elections.”