By fielding a sizeable number of new faces in West Bengal and by backing half-a-dozen independent candidates in areas in Kerala where it is traditionally weak, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) is trying to salvage its fortunes in an election in which the party has been practically written off by pollsters.
A concerted effort is being made to wean back the Muslims from the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal, where it has fielded 10 members of the community in the 32 seats it is contesting out of 42 in the State.
In Kerala, the party is trying to reach out to the Christian vote bank, which has traditionally been hostile to the Left parties, by fielding four Christians as independent candidates.
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While the seat-sharing arrangement in the Left Front in West Bengal is a repeat of the equation of previous elections, the Left Democratic Front (LDF) in Kerala has suffered a setback with the Revolutionary Socialist Party walking out of the front.
That the CPI(M) allowed a founding member of the LDF to leave the fold and then decided to back five independents has raised eyebrows.
“Essentially, this is a strategy to gain votes which usually do not come to us,” is the CPI (M) refrain.
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