CPI (ML) to hold anti-BJP marches

PATNA: The CPI (ML) will organise five marches between April 23 and May 1 to “build a strong public opinion against the BJP” in the state. The marches, which will start from different places across the state, will turn into a rally at Gandhi Maidan here on May 1.
The decision to organise anti-BJP processions across the country was taken at the recently concluded congress of the CPI (ML) at Mansa in Punjab.The party endorsed its Bihar unit’s proposal to hold five marches on the pattern of the recently held farmers’ protest march from Nasik to Azad Maidan in Mumbai, covering a distance of 150km.
“The CPI (ML)’s five marches in the state – christened ‘Bhajapa bhagao, Bihar bachao’ – will be unique in terms of its scale and thematic content,” party’s state secretary Kunal said, adding the participants will cover around 500km of distance over eight days before joining the rally at Gandhi Maidan on May 1.
CPI (ML) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya is likely to lead the first march of around 5,000 people that would start from Bikramganj in Bhojpur district on April 23. The four other marches will start from Gaya, Biharsharif, Muzaffarpur and Khagaria.
“Ever since forming the second NDA government in the state last July, the BJP has taken CM Nitish Kumar in its complete grip. The CM has totally surrendered himself to BJP, leaving the fringe groups of RSS to poison the state with communal virus,” Kunal said, adding the BJP’s “hidden agenda” came to the fore during the recently held Ram Navami celebrations that saw large scale communal violence across the state.
Kunal, who was talking to media persons, was accompanied by CPI (ML) legislature party leader Mehboob Alam, politburo member Dhirendra Kumar Jha, All India Progressive Women’s Association general secretary Meena Tiwari and senior functionaries of Khet Majdoor Sabha Birendra Gupta and Gopal Ravidas.
The CPI (ML) has also lined up other programmes, like protest demonstrations against alleged dilution of the SC/ST Act on April 7, observance of the visit of PM Narendra Modi to Motihari on April 10 as “black day”, Bhoomi Adhikar Sabha at Bettiah on April 14 and the six-party Left combine’s ‘samvidhan bachao, desh bachao’ processions at the district headquarters the same day.