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“Serious introspection” is all that Left leaders could say when asked to explain the verdict that has reduced them to being almost a non-entity this time round. In fact, the last two Lok Sabha elections have seen them falling from more than 60 seats in 2004 to a mere 11 this time. This is the lowest ever tally for the Left parties in the country’s electoral history.
What has come as a rude shock to the Left parties is the free fall in West Bengal, where it could manage just 2 of the 42 seats with a vote share of just under 30 per cent. In 2009 election, the communists had won 15 seats with a combined vote share of 43.3 per cent. In fact, in terms of vote share, the Left parties fell slightly short of Trinamool Congress’ and the Congress’ combine in 2009.
They did only marginally better in Kerala by bagging 7 of the 20 seats, an improvement over the last Lok Sabha elections. They had won 4 seats in 2009. Only good news is from Tripura, where the Communist Party of India (Marxist) won both the seats with an improved vote share.
“What we can say with certainly is that there was anger against the Congress throughout the country and but for lack of an effective alternative, the Bharatiya Janata Party won by default. Why did we do so poorly, especially in West Bengal, is something that needs serious introspection,” said D Raja, national secretary, Communist Party of India (CPI). The CPI even failed to open its account in West Bengal.
What should worry Left leaders even more is nearly 2.5 per cent fall in their national vote share, from 7.6 per cent in 2009 to just 5 per cent (provisional) this time. In fact, CPI(M), the largest constituent of the Left parties, now has national vote share of just 3.6 per cent which is less than its main rival Trinamool Congress’ all-India vote share of 4.1 per cent.
With numbers clearly not on their side, Left parties risk further marginalization with the emergence of Aam Admi Party (AAP) that is also trying to reach out to same set of people in rural and urban areas in select states. Incidentally, according to provisional figures, the AAP managed an all-India vote share of 2.3 per cent in its debut Lok Sabha elections.
