GUWAHATI, Oct 29 - A conglomeration of 11 Opposition parties of the State has fielded Amiya Kumar Handique as its common candidate for the Lakhimpur Parliamentary Constituency, the by-election to which is scheduled to be held on November 19.
The State secretary of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), Deben Bhattacharyya, told this newspaper that 11 Opposition parties have united to field Handique as a common candidate in the Lakhimpur by-election to defeat the communal Bharatiya Janata Party and the corrupt Congress.
He made an appeal to the �democratic, secular and progressive voters� of Lakhimpur Parliamentary Constituency to vote for Handique en bloc. This is needed to send a message to both the BJP and the Congress camps that their tricks to hoodwink the gullible people with their false promises are no longer effective, said the CPI-M State secretary.
He stated that Amiya Handique is a retired teacher of Dhakuwakhana College and a member of the CPI (M). His candidature is supported by the CPI, CPI (ML), Socialist Party, Nationalist Congress Party, Revolutionary Communist Party, Forward Block, Janata Dal (Secular), Assam Sangrami Mancha, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).
When asked about the main plank of the conglomeration in the Lakhimpur by-election, Bhattacharyya said that it would ask the people to vote against the proposed amendment to the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, which seeks to grant citizenship to the people on the basis of their religion. This is quite against the spirit of the Constitution of the country, he said.
Moreover, the issues of flood, erosion, oil field privatization, skyrocketing prices of essential items, big dams, etc., will also be taken to the common voters, seeking their mandate on the issues, said Bhattacharyya, adding that the BJP has now made a volte-face on all such issues.
