CPM bent on candidate for MalegaonNASHIK: Senior Communist Party Marxist leader in Maharashtra, Prabhakar Sanzgiri, said on Wednesday that the party would not withdraw its candidate, former MLA Jiva Pandu Gavit, from the Malegaon Lok Sabha constituency in support of the Janata Dal. The Janata Dal has named Haribhau Mahale as its candidate for the seat. Both CPM and JD are part of the United Front, which had pledged to contest the coming polls together. A few days ago, state JD president Nihal Ahmed had warned the CPM that if it fielded Gavit from Malegaon, the JD would put up its candidate against the CPM from Dahanu in Thane district.Jaya man quitsCHENNAI: Former MP and propaganda secretary of the AIADMK (J) P Selvendran, who was recently relieved of the post, quit the party on Tuesday and joined the DMK. In a war of attrition between Selvendran and AIADMK treasurer Sedapatti R Muthiah, the former was sidelined. He had also sought the Periyakulam seat which has now been allotted to Muthiah. Theni district Jayalalitha Peravai joint secretary L Sethuram and former secretary of the Peravai in Madurai K Ilango also joined the DMK in the presence of DMK general secretary and education minister K Anbazhagan on Tuesday. Around 100 MDMK cadres from the Andhra Pradesh unit have also joined the DMK.MCC candidateMUMBAI: PATNA: The Bihar state committee of the Marxist Coordination Committee (MCC) will field renowned trade unionist A K Roy from Dhanbad as a United Front candidate in the coming Lok Sabha elections. Party's secretary Umashankar Shukla, in a release issued today said the Marxist outfit stands for uniting all Left, democratic and secular forces of Bihar in the UF to fight corruption, casteism, communalism, criminalisation of politics, illiteracy and unemployment. He said Roy had represented Dhanbad constituency in 1977, 1980 and 1989.MLA releasedAGARTALA: Purnamohan Tripura, sitting MLA (CPM) and a former minister, released from militant captivity on Monday last, would be given the party ticket to contest the February 16 assembly election in Tripura from Chhamanu (ST) assembly constituency. The state secretariat of the CPM at a meeting, chaired by the convenor of Left Front Manik Sarkar yesterday, decided to renominate Tripura, a veteran tribal leader to contest from the seat from which he had been representing the CPM for the last consecutive five terms.AP notificationHYDERABAD: The Election Commission has notified elections to 42 Lok Sabha constituencies and byelection to two assembly constituencies in Andhra Pradesh. According to a notification, the election schedule is: date of issue of notification January 21, date for filing of nomination January 28, date of scrutiny January 29, last date for withdrawal of candidates January 31, date of poll first phase February 16, second phase February 22 and date of counting March three.Bihar electoratePATNA: The Patna Lok Sabha constituency has highest number of voters whereas Khunti has the lowest in Bihar. According to election office sources, compared to Patna's 14,73,322 strong electorate Khunti has only 8,26,540 for the coming elections.
