People ruthless in punishing parties like Congress: CPI

Accepting the verdict of the general elections, CPI today said the people were "ruthless" in punishing parties like the Congress which had "betrayed their trust."

Observing that Left parties had suffered a serious setback, the party Central Secretariat said the polls saw "unparallelled money power and malpractices", though the CPI and the Left fought these elections "on the basis of principles and policies."

"There is a need for introspection. There is a need to rejuvenate and rework the functions and strategy of the party and the Left in the emerging situation," it said.

"The people are ruthless in punishing the parties which betray their trust. The results are clear expression of the peoples' anger against the Congress misrule. In the absence of an alternative, the BJP took the advantage and gained a massive victory," the party said.

During the campaign and earlier, the CPI had been highlighting the problems of corruption, price rise and unemployment due to the "miserable failure" of Congress-led UPA-II government. It had also campaigned on the challenge posed by communal forces to the secular and democratic republic and society.

Maintaining that it would continue to struggle to defend secular democracy and the rights of the people, it said the results were a serious setback to CPI and the Left.

The party's National Executive would meet tomorrow and the National Council few weeks later to analyse the election results and draw appropriate lessons.