As the BJP and the Congress slug it out in the battle for Rajasthan, a third front of seven parties is taking shape with its chief ministerial face and firebrand farmer leader, Amra Ram, saying it’s time to end the State’s two-party system of “divide, loot and rule”.
“Comrade” Ram, as the CPI(M) State secretary is called by his party colleagues, is confident that the mega alliance will put up a tough fight, and said it would not be surprising if they became a king-maker as the Janata Dal(S) in Karnataka.
Talking to PTI on his campaign tour at Godiyawas village in Danta Ramgarh, the 63-year-old Left leader said there was a cycle in Rajasthan of the Congress and the BJP “looting” the State for alternate five years.
This time, the Bharatiya Janata Party will definitely lose but the Congress will not be able to win, he said.
The seven-party alliance, the Loktantrik Morcha, whose chief ministerial face is Mr. Ram, has the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the Communist Party of India, the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist), the Marxist Communist Party of India (United), the Samajwadi Party, the Rashtriya Lok Dal and the Janata Dal (Secular).
He said the representation by the Left parties in the Rajasthan Assembly would touch a record high. “It will not be a surprise that like in Karnataka, the two main parties are left high and dry and a third force heads the government.”
Mr. Ram, who is the vice-president of All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), had led a massive farmers’ agitation against the State government last year and was in jail for several days.
“In the last five years, the BJP government has worked against everybody — farmers, workers and backwards. It did not fulfil even a single poll promise,” Mr. Ram said.
When asked about the reason for being so upbeat even though his party drew a blank in the last election, he said the CPI(M) had worked on making the government concede to the common man’s demands in past five years — be it the issue of electricity rates, waiving farmer loans, fixing prices for farmers’ produce, crop insurance scheme or the irrigation related issues.