‘Those writing epitaph for CPI(M) are mistaken'

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Monday said it would assess why people of West Bengal voted for a change in the Assembly elections and take steps to reconnect with people.

“While acknowledging this defeat, some who are now writing an epitaph for the Left Front and the CPI(M), I am afraid, are mistaken and would be proved wrong,” party general secretary Prakash Karat said addressing reporters on the deliberations of a Polit Bureau meeting here.

He said despite electoral reverses, the Left Front had got the support of 1.96 crore people, which was over 41 per cent of the votes polled. The Left Front got 11 lakh votes more than it did in the 2009 Lok Sabha election, he said attributing it to the corrective steps taken after those polls.

However, this was not sufficient as the Trinamool Congress got some 35 lakh votes more, he said. While the Left could mobilise more people, it did not factor in the Opposition drawing out more people in its favour.

Kerala result

As for Kerala, he said the Polit Bureau felt the electoral performance of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) showed that the people appreciated the work of its government with the LDF polling 45.13 per cent of the votes, which was only 0.89 per cent less than that of the United Democratic Front.

Asked who would lead the Opposition in the Assemblies of Kerala and West Bengal, Mr. Karat said the issue would be decided by the State committees. They were asked to conduct a thorough review of the results and their reports would be perused by the Polit Bureau and the Central Committee in Hyderabad from June 10 to 12. The Central Committee would finalise the election review and the steps to be taken to strengthen the party and the movement.

To a question about the veracity of reports that the outgoing Chief Minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, had offered to resign from the Polit Bureau following the electoral debacle, he said nobody had resigned and or even made such an offer. “I am surprised that one newspaper in West Bengal has information that our party does not [have] or even Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee did not.”

Mr. Karat said Mr. Bhattacharjee chose not to attend the Monday meeting here as attacks against party workers and supporters had started. The Polit Bureau noted that immediately after the election results, there were widespread attacks on workers of the CPI(M) and the Left Front in different parts of West Bengal and already three leaders were killed.

While demanding an immediate halt to the violence against the CPI(M) and the Left Front, the Polit Bureau said the Trinamool Congress leadership had the responsibility to ensure that the violence ended. It also appealed to all democratic forces in the country to protest against such attacks.