Buoyed over its performance in the Jangipura Lok Sabha by-election, where its candidate lost by a thin margin of 2,500 votes, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Sunday said the Congress’ victory was only a technical win.
Talking to reporters at the end of the party’s three-day central committee meeting here, general secretary Prakash Karat said the party had put up a very good performance in Jangipura. He pointed out that in the last election, they lost the seat to the Congress by about 1.28 lakh votes.
“We were unable to send our polling agents to 16 polling stations and there were some issues at four polling stations. Importantly, there was a dummy candidate with the same name of our candidate who polled 11,000 votes,” he said.
On the performance of the Bharatiya Janata Party whose candidate polled 85,000 votes, he said the party would have to analyse the situation before commenting on it.
The central committee discussed the party’s participation in the coming Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat polls and approved the decision on the seats to be contested.
“The CPI(M) is joining hands with two other parties in Himachal and we expect to win some seats. The party will also contest some seats in Gujarat,” Mr. Karat said.
