Interestingly, the familiar Left faces were not to be seen on various TV channels after the party got wiped out in the West Bengal by-elections. Sitaram Yechury, the most visible face of the CPI(M) on nightly television, was in Madrid participating in the 18th Congress of the Spanish Communist Party while Brinda Karat was in Brazil attending another fraternal party’s conference. Prakash Karat was in London around the same time.