As the CPI-M kicked off its campaign for the Assembly polls today, the party seems to be in no mood to take chances with the Election Commission (EC).Addressing a rally at Brigade Parade Ground, former chief minister Jyoti Basu exhorted his partymen to cooperate with EC officials who will be visiting the districts from tomorrow to oversee the ongoing roll revision process. ‘‘We should not think that the observers have come here to see that we lose the polls. Why should they do so? And not all of them are our enemies. We have got our friends too among them. My request to you is that you give all help to these officials,’’ said Basu.The EC has sent 19 observers to the state, including K J Rao. The observers will be spending a week in each of the 19 districts, supervising the roll revision process.Apart from Basu, the other leaders who addressed today’s rally—attended by at least 10 lakh people—included Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, Left Front chairman Biman Bose and CPI-M state party secretary Anil Biswas. All the leaders harped on one issue—development, while exhorting the people to vote for a seventh Left Front government in the state. The key to greater development, they said, lay in rapid industrialisation of the state.‘‘We have achieved success in agriculture, now the priority for the next LF government will be industrialisation,’’ said Biswas.And almost all the speakers spewed venom on two people—US President George W Bush and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee. ‘‘Bush is the leader of the most organised killer gang of the world. And he is coming to India. We will hold demonstrations all over the country to protest against his visit,’’ said the Chief Minister.‘‘Trinamool is no party at all. It’s a just a platform to fulfil the whims and wishes of a particular person,’’ said Biswas.The party also urged its supporters to act as ‘‘soldiers’’ in strengthening the booth-level coordination during the hustings and ensure that the CPI-M polled at least 50 per cent of votes in its strongholds.‘‘We have four slogans for the elections—to unite the working class and middle class, to bring them to our fold, to increase our votes in our strongholds from 48 per cent of the total votes polled in the last elections to 50 per cent this time. Our supporters must act as soldiers in strengthening booth-level coordination,’’ added Biswas.
