Every fresh round of elections in our country produces mixed emotions of anxiety, anger, hope and despair. The increasing incidence of terrorist attacks, and the whipping of sectarian passions on all sides during the run up to elections is a cause for anxiety. The fact that political system and process is heavily weighted in favour of parties financed by the big corporate houses like the Congress and BJP is legitimate cause for anger. The collective experience of our people that even though the party in power might change through elections, the conditions of the workers and peasants and working people only go from bad to worse, is a cause for despair. Last but not the least, that these elections are giving rise to new initiatives is cause for hope.

New kinds of candidates are emerging, through a radically different political process, which is albeit at a nascent stage, having no "official recognition", but increasingly being supported by workers and peasants. They are challenging the "divine right to rule" of the Congress and BJP and such like parties. They are challenging the line that there is no alternative to liberalisation and privatisation— that what is good for the capitalists is what is good for the workers and peasants. In opposition to this, they are putting forward a different model of development wherein the concerns of the worker and peasant, of the women and youth, is the preoccupation.

Through the issues they raise, as well as the way they raise these issues, they are challenging the very system of parliamentary democracy and showing it up for what it is — the dictatorship of the moneybags. Through the campaign they are also showcasing the alternative — not only what is to be done, but who will do it. How the political system and process should be reorganised so that workers and peasants and working people can actually rule, and reorganise the economy so that their concerns are addressed.

In the Delhi Assembly Tughlakabad constituency a youth from the working class, Bijju Nayak has been selected as the people's candidate, by the Lok Raj Samitis of the constituency. In the Okhla constituency, another youth from the working class, Santosh Kumar has been selected as the people's candidate, by the Lok Raj Samitis of that area. In both cases, the selections were done at public meetings hosted by the Lok Raj Samitis of the constituency.

These candidates have been organising the workers, women and youth to unite and fight for their rights. At the selection meetings, workers, women and youth of their areas came forward to support their nominations, expressing appeciation for their work and for this initiative of the Lok Raj Samitis to field candidates from amongst the people. Each of these candidates read out a declaration that he would work in the interests of the people, submit to the will of the people of his constituency, render accounts to them and accept the right of the people to recall him at any time, if he is found unworthy of the trust they have placed in him.

An important plank of their campaign is the struggle against all forms of police harassment of working people, all forms of violence against women, as well as the struggle to ensure conviction and punishment for those guilty of organising communal violence, terrorist strikes and persecution of communities on the basis of religion, caste or region.

Their call to the people is a direct challenge to the existing political process dominated by the political parties of the wealthy and influential, in which the working people are completely marginalised. They have declared that their goal is to organise the people to put an end to all forms of exploitation, terror and oppression, all politics that divide the people and limit their role to that of being vote banks; to enable people, organised in their committees, to become the rulers and decision makers by holding all elected candidates answerable to the people's committees, by having the right to recall those who work against the interests of the people as well as the right to propose laws.

These candidates are campaigning door to door among the people in their respective constituencies, explaining how the present system works against the interests of the workers and peasants and calling on the workers and oppressed to join the struggle for an alternative system, in which people's concerns will be primary, rather than the profits of a minority of exploiters. Workers, women and youth are joining the campaign enthusiastically, collecting donations and contributions.

From Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, we have received, as we go to the press, news of various candidates fighting the Congress and BJP, and the globalisation, liberalisation and privatisation plank of the bourgeosie. These candidates are challenging the development plank of the bourgeoisie and raising the issue of what kind of decelopment will serve the workers and peasants. They are highlighting how the economic course pursued and proposed by the Congress and BJP, is leading to devastation for the workers and peasants while enriching the Indian and foreign multinationals. They are oppsing state terrorism, demanding dismantling of the Salwa Judum and the repeal of fascist laws like Chhattisgarh Public Safety Act.

The Communist Ghadar Party of India extends its wholehearted support to all those who are consistently opposed to the Congress and BJP and the liberalisation-privatisation plank of the bourgeoise, to all those who are striving to weaken the domination of the political process by political parties representing the concerns of the reactionary bourgeoisie, to all those who are fighting for the rights and interests of the working class and peasantry.

Many organisations have come forward to support the campaigning of these candidates. These include Hind Naujawan Ekta Sabha, Mazdoor Ekta Committee, Jan Pratinidhi Manch, Nepali Janadhikar Suraksha Samiti (Bharat), All India Workers Council,  Delhi Leather Workers Union, Delhi Workers Organisation, Nirman Mazdoor Panchayat Sangam, Purogami Mahila Sangathan, Nirmala Niketan (Cooperative Society of Adivasi domestic workers), UNI Employees Union, Rangbhoomi Natya Samooh, People’s Front, Lok Raj Sangathan, Socialist Party (Lohia) and the Communist Ghadar Party of India.