Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said on Thursday that the party would review its poor showing in West Bengal, even as he congratulated party workers for the historic victory in Kerala.
“There are several political battles. We won the battle for Kerala, but lost the battle for Bengal,” he told reporters after the election trends became clear.
Who would be the Chief Minister in Kerala, nonagenarian V.S. Achuthanandan or Pinarayi Vijayan? Mr. Yechury said the party’s State secretariat and the State committee would discuss the issue on Friday.
A release circulated by the party in the evening said the Kerala victory was a vindication of the positive programme of the LDF and a rejection of “corruption” and “misgovernance” under the UDF government. Interestingly, the statement made no mention of the Congress in Bengal, with whom the party had gone in for a seat adjustment. It says money power and corruption played a role in the return of the AIADMK in Tamil Nadu.
As for Assam, the statement said the BJP’s victory over the Congress, which was facing anti-incumbency, reflected the absence of a “secular, democratic” alternative in the State.
