New Delhi: Left parties in Bihar ceded most gains they had made in the 2020 Assembly elections.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist)-Liberation, which had won 12 out of the 19 seats it contested in the state the last time, managed to clinch victories in just two constituencies – Paliganj and Karakat.
Results of the two-phase Bihar Assembly elections, votes for which were counted on Friday, showed that the Communist Party of India (Marxist) won from a single seat, Bibhutipur. The Communist Party of India (CPI) did not open its tally.
Together, the Left parties had captured 16 of the 29 seats they fought as part of the Mahagathbandhan coalition in 2020. CPI and CPI(M) had each won two seats after contesting from six and four constituencies, respectively.
Despite CPI(ML)-L’s impressive showing five years ago, the party received only one additional constituency in this election’s seat-sharing arrangement. General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya attributed the modest increase to the inclusion of more alliance partners, specifically the Vikassheel Insaan Party headed by Mukesh Sahni and the Indian Inclusive Party led by I.P. Gupta.
Analysts had offered different explanations for the 2020 results. Some dismissed the Left’s success as capitalising on RJD’s electoral machinery, while others argued that the ideologically-driven parties’ grassroots work had yielded dividends.
2020 polls marked the first time that the CPI(ML)-L allied with the RJD-led Opposition in the state, signalling electoral pragmatism from a party long regarded as the most ideologically driven one on the Left.
The Left’s poor performance this time suggests that the parties were dependent on the alliance doing well as a whole. That didn’t happen.
RJD’s count was down to mid-20s, out of the 143 it fought on, and Congress, plunged to single digit from 61 it contested.
Also Read: Live updates on Bihar assembly election results