The State secretariat of the Communist Party of India (CPI) has come to the conclusion that its poor performance in the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha constituency was on account of the party’s failure to go in for a political fight instead of depending largely on Nadar community votes.
The CPI secretariat, which made a preliminary assessment of the poll outcome at its meeting here on Monday, felt that the party would have fared better if it had gone with the argument of one section of the party leaders and cadres that the LDF should not be seen as seeking to mobilise communal votes. Party nominee Bennet Abraham had finished third in the electoral battle, over 30,000 votes behind runner-up BJP candidate O. Rajagopal.
“We self-critically accept our mistake,” a senior CPI leader told The Hindu on condition of anonymity. The secretariat, according to him, had found that there was sharp erosion in the LDF’s vote bank in the constituency. This was a clear setback and resulted in votes flowing in the direction of Mr. Rajagopal and Congress candidate Shashi Tharoor. In the case of the former, the erosion happened in the city area, Mr. Tharoor benefitted from traditional LDF votes in the peripheries. Besides the ‘vacillating’ votes, these also included votes of the CPI(M) and even sections of the CPI, he said.
The party had counted Thrissur and Thiruvananthapuram as ‘sure’ seats. While it could score an impressive victory in Thrissur, it could not do so in Thiruvananthapuram owing to flawed candidate selection. In contrast, the party could put up a creditable show in such a difficult constituency as Wayanad, he pointed out.
On the general poll outcome, the party secretariat was of the view that the LDF could not take full advantage of what was clearly a favourable political situation. This clearly implied that the LDF should change its style of functioning and try to reach out to the grassroots, the CPI leader said.
