Top CPI-M leaders to campaign in Kerala

Agartala: All the top CPI-M leaders including general secretary Sitaram Yechury, his predecessor Prakash Karat, Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar, and politburo member Brinda Karat would campaign in Kerala ahead of the May 16 assembly elections, party sources said on Thursday.

"All the top CPI-M (Communist Party of India-Marxist) leaders would led the electoral campaign in Kerala from the first week of May. CPI-M leader from Jammu and Kashmir and party's lone legislator Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami would also join the campaign," a party source said here.

The source said that Yechury, Sarkar, and Brinda Karat, who campaigned for the party in Assam and West Bengal assembly elections, would join Prakash Karat and politburo member Subhashini Ali in the campaign in Kerala.

The CPI-M leaders would address many election rallies in all the 14 districts across the state, ruled by the Congress-led United Democratic Front.

Sarkar, also a CPI-M politburo member, will launch his three day campaign for LDF candidates from Thrissur on May 9.

In the 2011 assembly polls, the UDF secured 72 seats while the CPI-M-led Left Democratic Front got 68 seats in the 140-member assembly.