Loss in Bihar setback for Mahagatbandhan, results not as per expectation, say Left leaders

New Delhi, Nov 14 (PTI) Left parties on Friday called the defeat in Bihar a major setback for the Mahagatbandhan, even as leaders said the results were reflective of the ground realities.

Communist Party of India (Marxist) General Secretary M A Baby said the results were "quite unexpected" and stressed that the opposition alliance needs more united efforts.

"The result is quite unexpected. Our assessment was that with the massive campaign we had carried out on misuse of the Election Commission, the unemployment situation in Bihar, the lack of democratic governance…We were expecting a victory for the Mahagatbandhan. But now there is a real setback for Mahagatbandhan," Baby told PTI.

He accused the ruling NDA of misusing the state machinery, resorting to various manipulations, and deploying "huge amounts of money".

"The Bihar elections show that to defeat the BJP, opposition parties must make a more united effort. The CPI(M) will examine in detail the other factors behind these results," Baby said.

"There was a report that around a dozen constituencies that were to be so-called friendly contests by parties belonging to the Mahagatbandhan, that sent a wrong message to sections of people," he said.

The CPI(M) general secretary stressed that it is important that a more unified image should be projected on behalf of the opposition.

Asked about its impact on the alliance at a national level, he said, "Bihar setback definitely will have its impact, but we are seasoned political parties; we have had ups and downs in our political life. With patience, realisation of the objective reality in the country, we have to have proper preparations." He also thanked the people of Bihar for voting for the Mahagatbandhan candidates.

CPI(M)'s Central Committee member Awadhesh Kumar said the result was not as per their expectations, and the reasons for the defeat would be analysed. He also said that the Left party's struggle on people's issues would continue irrespective of the results.

"We had not expected this result. We will have to analyse the reasons, whether it was the Rs. 10,000 given to women or some other factor," he told PTI.

Communist Party of India General Secretary D Raja also said the crowds gathering at their campaign were huge, and the alliance should do a serious introspection on what happened.

"INDIA bloc parties should do serious introspection on what happened. Because what we witnessed during the campaign was a different scene. People were gathering in all campaign meetings of Mahagathbandhan. We could see huge public response, young people of Bihar looking for a change," Raja told PTI.

He said the gap between the INDIA bloc and NDA is huge, and the focus should be on finding why it happens. He also said that seat sharing is among the issues that need to be looked into, as all parties were not properly accommodated.

"Why is the INDIA bloc losing in electoral battles? This needs to be critically discussed and analysed, because seat sharing is an important issue, and the INDIA bloc parties must have learnt lessons from what happened in Haryana, Maharashtra. In Bihar, the seat sharing could not be achieved reasonably accommodating all parties, that is also one of the reasons I understand," he said.

"I find there are some discrepancies in the voters' figures also — what EC gave after SIR and polling; some questions remain," he added.

Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, whose party had won 12 seats in the 2020 Bihar polls, said the results do not correspond to the ground reality in the state.

"The results are absolutely unnatural; it does not correspond at all to the ground reality of Bihar," Bhattacharya told PTI.

"A government in power for two decades repeating its 2010 performance is quite inexplicable," he said.

The CPI(ML)L, which fought on 20 seats as a part of the Mahagatbandhan this time, won two seats — Paliganj and Karakat, while the CPI(M), which had contested four, won only one — Bibhutipur. The CPI did not win any of the seats.

The CPI(ML)L got around 2.89 per cent votes as per the ECI website, down from 3.16 per cent in the 2020 Bihar assembly polls. The vote share of the CPI(M) was 0.62 per cent this time, and CPI got around 0.76 per cent of the votes.

In 2020, the CPI(M) had polled 0.65 per cent of the votes, while the CPI got 0.83 per cent of the vote share.

In the 2020 Assembly election, the CPI(ML)L had contested 19 seats and won 12, the CPI had contested six seats, while the CPI(M) fought on four seats. Both won two seats each. In the 2024 Lok Sabha election, the CPI(M-L) won two seats of Ara and Karakat of the total 40 seats. PTI AO AMJ AMJ