NEW DELHI: With CPI claiming that the CPI(M) had "hijacked" their candidate from Okhla, the man in question on Tuesday issued a statement capping speculation on whose nominee he is and said he is a CPI(M) candidate.
"I will contest the Delhi Assembly elections from Okhla constituency as a candidate of the CPI(M) ... I welcome support from all quarters for my candidature from the CPI(M), Raza Haider, the candidate, said in the statement.
The candidature of Haider, the Urdu Editors' Guild Chairman, has ran into a controversy after CPI accused the CPI(M) of "hijacking" their candidate, whom they had decided at a meeting of its state executive last week.
Terming CPI(M) as the "future" of the people, he said it was the first national party to break silence and demand a judicial probe into the encounter in south Delhi's Jamia Nagar in which two suspected Indian Mujahideen militants were killed.
Incidentally, Jamia Nagar falls in Okhla constituency from where Haider is contesting.
He claimed that the future of the country and the Muslim youth lie in the alternative policy perspective represented by the CPI(M).
CPI Delhi General Secretary Amarjeet Kaur has earlier said that their state executive had five days ago cleared Haider's name. "We are really surprised at the CPI(M) move. He was our candidate. We do not know what they were doing," she said.
Her CPI(M) counterpart Pushpendra Grewal said his party was in touch with Haider for the past few days and he had expressed interest in contesting from Okhla on the party symbol. "How can they (CPI) say that he is their candidate. He himself says he fights on our symbol," he said.
