Vijayawada, August 10: Will the CPM leadership project leaders other than the incumbents as chief ministerial candidates in Kerala and West Bengal in the forthcoming elections? Though there were rumours that VS Atchuthanandan will be replaced by another leader in Kerala, CPM politburo member Sitaram Yechury evaded a direct reply on the issue and swiftly moved to answer another query at a press briefing here on Monday.
Asked if some of the sitting MLAs would be dropped in both the states, he said elections were due in eight months and there was a lot of time to finalise candidates. On whether the CPM would launch its own news channel, as the party was upset with the ‘corporate media’, he said the party had no such economic strength to start a news channel.
On the Singur land acquisition, the CPM leader said 12,000 people claimed compensation from the government for 997 acres.
He defended the Bengal government’s decision to go for massive industrialisation. The land reforms were completed in the state and the only alternative was to go for industrialisation to provide jobs, he explained.
–Agencies