The 2009 Lok Sabha polls seems to have sounded an alarm bell for CPI(M) whose vote share has gone down in its strongholds of West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura.
The party's overall vote share has fallen from 5.66 per cent in 2004 to 5.33 per cent this year.
All the three states, ruled by the Marxists, have witnessed decline in the percentage of polling for the party, leading to its tally going down from 43 in 2004 to 16 this year.
The percentages of vote share by CPI(M) in West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura are 33.1, 30.48 and 61.69 respectively.
The vote share in these states in the last elections was 38.57 per cent, 31,52 per cent and 68.8 per cent in West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura respectively.
In West Bengal, Trinamool Congress, which got 21.04 per cent votes in 2004, increased its share to 31.17 per cent.
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The vote share of both Congress and BJP also declined in West Bengal from 14. 56 per cent and 8.06 per cent to 13.45 per cent and 6.14 per cent respectively.
As CPI(M)'s vote share went down in Kerala, Congress increased its share from 32.13 per cent to 40.13 per cent. BJP's share also went down from 10.38 per cent to 6.31 per cent this year.
In Tripura, Congress increased its share to 30.75 per cent from 14.28 per cent in 2004. The CPI(M)'s share was down by seven per cent. The Marxist party's overall vote share in 1999 elections was 5.4 per cent which increased to 5.66 in 2004.
CPI(M) is of the view that its its alliance with non-Congress and non-BJP parties were not seen by the people as a "credible and viable alternative" at the national level.
On the worst-ever drubbing received since its inception in 1964, the party said "serious reverses" suffered by the Left in West Bengal and Kerala were a matter of "deep concern" and efforts will be made to win "support and confidence" of those sections who have been alienated.