New Delhi : The CPI(M) has been totally cornered after the Lok Sabha poll results came out on Thursday. The party has failed once again thoroughly in West Bengal. Therefore, the significant question now is that why is the Left party consistently sliding off the political radar?
Political observers in Kerala, a state where the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) has done exceeding well, have said, “The case is not that of a negative vote against the Left Democratic Front (LDF), but a positive vote in favour of the UDF. The entry of Congress president Rahul Gandhi in Kerala, where he has contested the Wayanad seat, has made a lot of difference. People voted for a force which they thought could take on BJP at the Centre and they saw the answer in UDF.”
The Trivandrum-based analyst said that this factor also reflected in the BJP candidates who did poorly in the state.
However, the story has been totally different in Bengal. Sources said the Left party’s strategy of seeking votes against both the TMC and the BJP did not catch the fancy of the voters. The Left is unable to draw youth and communal polarization in the state has the Left in the doldrums. Reports further suggest that the vote share of the Left Front has fallen drastically to a single digit in the state where it was in power for three decades. The Left Front is also often talked about in Didi’s Bengal for the prevailing unemployment and economic stagnation.
The statement issued by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) Polit Bureau in the wake of the results says a lot about the bleak scenario. It says, “The Indian electorate has given a decisive verdict in favour of the BJP and its allies. The CPI(M) has suffered a severe setback in the last few elections. We shall introspect the reasons. The CPI(M) thanks all those people who have voted for its candidates. The polit bureau salutes all those who worked in carrying forward the CPI(M)’s message in these elections to the people. There are very big challenges ahead regarding the defense of our secular democratic Republic, the institutions of Constitutional authority, people’s rights and livelihood issues. The Polit Bureau calls upon the people to safeguard harmony and to unitedly come forward to meet these challenges in the future.”
Here is a tweet from Sitaram Yechury, General Secretary CPI(M)