People's Democracy

CPI(M) to Reach out to People

WE do admit that after having been in power for a record 34 years at a stretch, the Left Front has suffered a big defeat in West Bengal, but those who are seeking to utilise these results to write an obituary of the CPI(M) or the Left are making a mistake and will prove to be wrong. This was the express opinion the CPI(M) general secretary, Prakash Karat, put forward while addressing a media conference at AKG Bhavan, the party headquarters in New Delhi, on May 16. He was briefing the media about the outcome of the brief Polit Bureau meeting that took place in the first part of the day in the background of the poll results.

Regarding these results, Karat underlined the fact that, despite the defeat, as many as 1 crore 96 lakh voters have voted in favour of the Left Front, which is more than 41 per cent of the total votes polled in the state. He also reminded that, compared to the Lok Sabha polls in 2009, the Left Front has garnered as much as 11 lakh more votes this time. This was the margin by which the Left Front lagged behind the alliance of Trinamul Congress and Congress in the Lok Sabha polls. About the queries from the mediapersons as to how the estimates made by the Left leaders were so off the mark, Karat said it was possible that the increase in the Left votes this time in comparison to those polled in 2009 impacted our estimates. While we had expected an increase in the Left Front’s vote tally, we could not anticipate the increase of 35 lakh odd votes for the rival alliance in comparison to its tally in 2009.

The CPI(M) general secretary told that the Polit Bureau has decided upon a programme of comprehensive and intensive review of the poll results. The review process has already started at the level of the concerned state committees, and a meeting of the Polit Bureau is going to take place at Hyderabad on June 10, to be followed by a meeting of the Central Committee there on June 11 and 12, when this process of poll review will come to completion. Karat expressed the hope that, based on the conclusions that come out of the poll review process, the party would reach out again to the people who now stand alienated. Karat rejected the opinion that nothing came out of the 2009 poll review and its conclusions, adding that an increase in the Left Front’s votes was a direct result of that review; it is another thing that this increase proved inadequate. In reply to another query, Karat said the poll review would cover all the factors of defeat, including the political reasons.

Contradicting the rumours about resignations following the poll debacle in West Bengal in particular, the CPI(M) general secretary categorically said nobody had resigned, nor had offered to resign. About the absence of Buddhadeb Bhattacharya from the Polit Bureau meeting on May 16, he said Bhattacharya could not come to Delhi as he needed to be there in Bengal at a time when attacks have begun against the CPI(M) and the Left in the state. In response to some other questions, Karat emphatically said, “elections are neither the beginning nor the end for us.”    

Drawing attention to the attacks Trinamul Congress goons have started launching against leaders, cadre and offices of the Left Front parties in the state, he said the Trinamul Congress must stick to its promise of not allowing such attacks. He said on May 16 itself a Left delegation was going to meet the state’s governor and request his intervention to stop such attacks. He also appealed to all the democratic forces in the country to raise their voice against political attacks of this kind.  

In context of the Kerala elections, Karat underlined the fact that the Left Democratic Front (LDF) trailed behind its rival, the United Democratic Front (UDF), by only 3 seats and 0.98 per cent of the votes. The difference between the two fronts comes to only about 1,05,000 votes. Terming it as an endorsement of the policies and measures of the outgoing LDF government, Karat said that, while sitting in the opposition, the Left would defend these pro-people policies and measures, and strive to take the popular struggles ahead. In reply to another query, he made it clear that the CPI(M) would play the role of “constructive opposition” in Tamilnadu.

Commenting on the recent developments in Karnataka, the CPI(M) leader said the Yeddyurappa government has lost the right to remain in power after the Supreme Court’s verdict ordering the restoration of membership of the 16 MLAs who were expelled from the state assembly. But he also made it clear that the CPI(M) sticks to its principled opposition to a resort to Article 356 of the constitution, and is against its use in Karnataka. In this context, he also criticised the opportunism inherent in the BJP’s opposition to the use of Article 356 and reminded how the BJP led NDA government had made a move in 1999 to dismiss the Rabri Devi government of Bihar under this very provision, though it failed to get its move endorsed by the parliament.