Maoists need ideological introspection: Yechury

New Delhi, Aug 28 (ANI): Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) leader Sitaram Yechury has said the Maoists need to introspect about their ideology before beginning back-channel peace talks with the government.

Addressing media persons, Yechury said the ideology of using violence to bring about a change is against the principles of democracy.

"The slogans of people's war comes from an ideological assessment that the Indian ruling classes do not have a social base of their own, they are weak, they are puppets of imperialism, all that is required is arm the people and once people are armed, we can have a revolution. So no back channel or front channel will work as long as that ideology is not reassessed. So, the Maoists themselves will have to reassess that ideology and come to the conclusion," he added.

Meanwhile, in a shocking disclosure, Yechury has highlighted several anomalies in the poll process in the CPM bastion of West Bengal and alleged that it was a plot hatched by regional opposition parties against the ruling Left Front.

Yechury revealed that the number of applications submitted before the State Election Commission for inclusion in the voter's list far exceeded the total electorate of West Bengal.

"Before the upcoming assembly elections in West Bengal, a strange situation has come to our notice. Nearly 560 million people have applied before the State Election Commission for their inclusion in the voters' list. Strangely, this number is 10 per cent higher than the total strength of the electorate of West Bengal," he said.

Calling it a sinister political plot, he lashed out at the Trinamool Congress (TMC), which is the Left Front's main rival, for illicitly rigging polls by using bogus voters.

"We see this as a part of a systematic campaign launched primarily by the opponents of the Left Front led by the Trinamool Congress in order to distort the electoral process through addition of a large number of bogus names on the electoral list," he alleged.

Earlier, political animosity between the two rival factions simmered into a potboiler as hundreds of activists from the TMC and the CPI (M) violently clashed on the streets of Bhagajatin in Kolkata. (ANI)