
Assam Assembly election | CPI(M) rides ‘Mahajot’ for comeback in State after 15 years
The Hindu
All Left Front candidates had lost their deposits in the 2016 Assembly poll.
Riding the 10-party ‘Mahajot’ or grand alliance led by Congress, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has staged a comeback in Assam after 15 years. As constituents of the ‘Mahajot’, the CPI (M), CPI and CPI (Marxist-Leninist) (Liberation) were given a seat each in the Assembly election. Munin Mahanta of the CPI finished third in Marigaon constituency behind the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Rama Kanta Dewri and Assam Jatiya Parishad’s Bani Kanti Das. Bibek Das of CPI (M-L) (L) fared similarly in Behali behind Textiles Minister Ranjijt Dutta of the BJP and independent candidate Jayanta Borah.
In , the grape capital of India and host of the Simhastha Kumbh Mela every 12 years, environmental concerns over a plan to cut 1,800 trees for the proposed Sadhugram project in the historic Tapovan area have sharpened political fault lines ahead of local body elections. The issue has pitted both Sena factions against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which leads the ruling Mahayuti alliance in Maharashtra. While Eknath Shinde, Deputy Chief Minister and Shiv Sena chief, and Uddhav Thackeray, chief of the Shiv Sena (UBT), remain political rivals, their parties have found rare common ground in Tapovan, where authorities propose clearing trees across 34 acres to build Sadhugram and a MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions) hub, as part of a ₹300-crore infrastructure push linked to the pilgrimage.












