Singh declared the willingness to contest elections at a press conference. The Calcutta District committee denounced the move. Other ML-factions saw as the new line as treachery. In 1971 Santosh Rana was elected to the West Bengal state assembly from the Gopiballavpur constituency (one of the areas were CPI(ML) had started armed struggle following the model of the Naxalbari uprising). Rana got 13401 votes (25,67%), which was enough to defeat the CPI(M), Indian National Congress and Janata Party candidates. Singh's CPI(ML) were also able to register the party name Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) with the Election Commission of India, but the registration was later lost. Post-1984 period Around 1980 Singh's group appeared as the strongest ML-faction, but with the exit of Chandrapulla Reddy and other splits the party shrunk. In 1984 a severe split occurred, with the loyalists of Singh opposed to the group of Santosh Rana and Vaskar Nandy. The Singh faction levelled the following accusation: "In our organisation also, Nandy’s close associates established contacts with a foreign voluntary agency and a native voluntary agency financed by Western monopoly capital, keeping it secret from the POC and the general secretary of the party, S N Singh. They established contact with Rural Aid Consortium of Tagore Society which is financed by West European countries and the USA and with one Danish Organisation on the Plea of providing relief to the people of Gobiballabpur in West Bengal and some areas in Bihar. Lakhs of rupees were received for digging tanks, constructing school building opening a sewing training center and distributing chickens and cattle to the needy. It also came to our notice that money was being received by some of our leaders from the Lutheran Church. When it came to light to the PCC members, an intense ideological struggle burst forth in the party on this issue." (Our differences with Nandy-Rana group, PCC-CPI(ML), p. 29) The group of Rana came to win a majority in the leadership (the provisional central committee) and Singh's followers formed a new committee (and de facto a new party). Singh died shortly afterwards. Rana's group differentiates themselves from other ML-factions through their emphasis on antifascism. Rana considers the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as a fascist danger for India. PCC, CPI(ML) gives the advice to their followers to vote for parties like CPI(M) or even the Indian National Congress in constituencies were no revolutionary