Party Regional Committee in Punjab elections

Voting for the Punjab Assembly took place on February 13, 2006. In the month before the elections, the Punjab Regional Committee of the Communist Ghadar Party of India carried outa vigorous and inspiring campaign amongst the peasants and workers and working people calling for the active intervention of the people in the electoral process.

As we reported in the earlier issue of Peoples Voice, the comrades of the Punjab Regional Committee had organised a highly successful meeting in Mansa, Punjab on January 6, 2006 on the theme: " how should communists intervene in the elections?" That meeting was attended by communists from almost all the parties and groups active in the region.

Following this meeting, the Comrades of the Punjab Regional Committee decided on an action plan for intervention in the elections. They brought out thousands of copies of a party statement on communists and elections, and they brought out a poster which placed some key demands of the people of Punjab before every candidate. These leaflets and posters were widely distributed in Halka Talwandi Sabo, Mansa, Bhatinda, and many other towns and districts in the state. Meetings were organised in many places.

The leaflets and posters were widely welcomed by the people, particularly the peasantry and agricultural workers, and by the workers and working people in the towns. In the town of Moga, wherein a joint front of four organisations which had given the call for boycott of elections had organised a rally, the leaflets and posters were widely distributed, and the party literature, including the party's organ Mazdoor Ekta Lehar, was widely disseminated.

According to the report of the Regional Committee, the working people of Punjab welcomed the call of the Party that political power must be in the hands of workers and peasants, and not in the hands of the bourgeoisie, that control of political parties over the government must end, and be replaced by people directly carrying out governance through representatives they have selected and elected. The people are very angry with the fact that the system has ensured the domination of parties like the Congress and the Akali Dal and marginalised the workers and peasants. People in many villages told the comrades that the representatives of these parties, when they come to power, are never seen again until the next elections. The call of the Party, that political parties should not have right to put up candidates, only people shoul select candidates, and people should challenge party selected candidates, evoked a powerful positive response them the people. The public campaign of the Communist Ghadar Party of India has put the Congress as well as Akali Dal into turmoil, with each worried that "its votes are being cut" by this campaign.

Below we are reproducing the translation of the poster produced by the Regional Committee.