The CPI(M) has started internal meetings to find out the reasons for the “big erosion” of votes in the Lok Sabha elections. As a prelude to a series of meetings at the State-level, the party’s Polit Bureau held a meeting that cited BJP’s campaign based on “big data analytics and micro-level social engineering” as the reason for CPI(M)’s defeat.
The meetings are likely to assess the responsibility of individual leaders and committees, although CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said on Monday that he takes the responsibility for the defeat.
CPI(M) insiders, however, maintain that the party’s functioning is based on collective responsibility and respective committees will analyse the role of every individual leader.
Talking to reporters after the two-day meeting, Yechury said he would attend the State Committee meetings in Kerala and West Bengal to find the reasons for the debacle. He said the highest decision-making body of the party, the Central Committee, would meet during June 7-9 to discuss and adopt a report based on feedback from the States, “to draw proper lessons on the basis of a serious introspection on the experiences” of the elections.
“The State Committees in our stronger States will meet and self-critically evaluate the party’s performance before the Central Committee meeting and, on the basis of this, the Central Committee shall draw up the necessary corrective measures in order to strengthen the CPI(M)’s independent strength and its capacities of political intervention through popular struggles,” Yechury said.
Livelihood issues ignored
He added that the BJP was successful in shifting the popular narrative away from the “multitude of livelihood issues”. “The narrative built around communal nationalist jingoism, along with the issues of fighting terrorism, brushed aside all other issues. This was aided by the build-up of the Modi persona through a combination of factors. These included the effective use of technology and its instruments of messaging people backed by big data analytics and micro-level social engineering,” he added.
He blamed the sections of the media for partnering in such projection backed by massive money power. “The role of the Election Commission was also a factor that permitted the build-up of such a narrative. This process was assisted by the vast network of RSS-affiliated organisations,” he claimed.