The three Left Parties — the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the Communist Party of India and the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) — have hailed the Bihar verdict. Congratulating the voters for their support to the Mahagathbandhan, they said the candidates of the Left parties have contributed to the alliance, putting up a spirited contest in the election against the ruling NDA.

‘Heartening response’

The general secretaries of the three parties, Sitaram Yechury, D Raja and Dipankar Bhattacharya, said the response of the youth and the people to the issues concerning people’s livelihood and employment was heartening. “The difference of vote share of both the alliances is very very small. The BJP-led alliance lost 12 per cent from the vote it polled in the 2019 Lok Sabha election,” they said.

They said Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s defection from the Mahagathbandhan to the BJP has been, amongst other factors, rejected by a large section of the electorate. The Left parties won 16 out of the 29 seats they contested.

“The BJP and Prime Minister Modi raised the communal agenda to a very high pitch and sought to communally polarise the electorate. This was effectively met largely by the Mahagathbandhan’s focus on the economic distress caused by the lockdown and the utter failure of the BJP and its allies in containing the pandemic and galloping unemployment,” the leaders said.

They alleged that there were certain clear irregularities during the last stages of the counting that need to be seriously addressed by the Election Commission. “Along with other partners of the Mahagathbandhan, the Left parties will take up these matters with the Election Commission of India. The Left parties’ presence in the Assembly will be utilised to advance the cause of the toiling people, raising crucial issues such as jobs and on social/economic injustices,” they said in a joint statement on Wednesday.

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