HYDERABAD, February 7: Even after 27 years of intense discussions, various Naxalites groups in the State do not seem to have arrived at an understanding on participating in the bourgeoisie elections in the country. To be nor to be is a question that eludes an answer, even as some of them have jumped in the poll fray.While the dominant People's War Group (PWG) of Naxalites are firm on their stand of boycotting polls, other Marxist-Leninist (ML) groups have been taking part in them while proclaiming that they do not have any faith in parliamentary democracy.
For the PWG, Parliament and Legislatures are mere talking shops which cannot deliver the goods and the group has an abiding faith in the Maoist doctrine power can be captured only through the barrel of gun. Fifty years of democratic experiment is a shallow exercise for them.
However, though the offspring of the same ideology, some other ML groups in the State have been participating in the polls since the late seventies. Without shedding the mainideological baggage, these groups term their participation as a stop-gap exercise till the masses are ready for an armed struggle.
Though these groups state that the existing system would not allow them to come to power, some of them had tasted isolated electoral victories and entered the Legislative Assembly. Tarimela Nagi Reddy of Unity Centre for Communist Revolutionaries in India (UCCRI) is one such example.
However, he quit his membership of the Assembly after making a historic statement in the House. The present Constitutional set-up itself is defective and to change it from within is impossible, was the explanation given by him.
In 1978, Chapala Yerraiah won from Yellendu (ST) constituency in Khammam district on behalf of CPI(ML), but later he defected to the Congress to support the leadership of the then Chief Minister Marri Channa Reddy.
Later, in 1989, Gummadi Narsaiah of CPI(ML-Prajapanda) won the seat while another splinter group, NV Krishnaiah of CPI (ML-Janashakti) won from Siricilla inKarimnagar. However, both of them lost the seats in the 1994 elections to the CPI. Naturally, each defeat resulted in a split in the parties.
This time at least seven ML parties have fielded their nominees. While CPI (ML-Janashakti) has fielded its candidates from Karimnagar, Kakinada and Miryalaguda, its splinter group, CPI (ML-COC) (NV Krishnaiah) is contesting from Parvatipuram (ST), Anantapur and Bhadrachalam (ST).
The Prajapanda group has fielded its candidates from Khammam, Bhadrachalam, Warangal and Rajahmundry while supporting the candidates of other groups wherever their candidates are in the fray. The UCCRI (ML) has entered the fray by fielding candidates from as many as eight seats. Praja Pratighatana, a splinter group of the Chandra Pulla Reddy group which is active in Warangal district, is backing an independent from Warangal while its splinter group, CPI(ML) (Pratighatana) is in the fray for the Khammam seat.
CPI (ML) (Liberation) has fielded its candidates from Kakinada, while supportingother revolutionaries in a few seats. What do they achieve by fighting an losing battle? ``The elections is a medium for us to spread our ideology. It is the best vehicle to reach out to the masses legally,'' said DV Krishna of Prajapanda.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
