E-Paper
Bihar Assembly Election 2020: Left records higher strike rate than RJD, Cong; lags in popular support
With 16 legislators in the 243-member assembly, the left’s seat share is 6.6%. This is its highest in the Hindi belt since 1995 when the three parties together had a seat share of 14% in the 243 seats that comprise the current Bihar assembly.
The three left parties – the Communist Party of India (CPI), the Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPI(M), and the Communist Party of India Marxist Leninist (Liberation) or the CPI-ML – have won 16 of the 29 assembly constituencies (ACs) they contested in the Bihar assembly elections. Their combined strike rate of 55.2% is third after the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) strike rate of 66.4% and Hindustani Awaam Morcha (HAM)’s 57.1%.
The CPI-ML has got its highest ever tally of 12 ACs, 5 more than the previous high of 7 ACs in the February 2005 elections in Bihar. In the February 2005 election, the party contested 109 ACs, while it contested only 19 ACs in this election.
Although some of the improvement in the performance of the left parties in Bihar can be attributed to their alliance with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Congress, they have performed better than their alliance partners in terms of strike rate. The CPI, CPI(M), and CPI-ML, who contested four, six, and 19 seats respectively, have a strike rate of 33.3%, 50%, and 63% respectively. The RJD and Congress, which contested 144 and 70 seats respectively, have a strike rate of 52.8% and 27.1% respectively.
With 16 legislators in the 243-member assembly, the left’s seat share is 6.6%. This is its highest in the Hindi belt since 1995 when the three parties together had a seat share of 14% in the 243 seats that comprise the current Bihar assembly.
To be sure, the improvement in seat share and strike rate of the left parties must not be construed as a big rise in popular support for the left. Its total vote share at the time of writing this story (11:45 pm) was 4.6%, less than the 5.1% votes it polled in the November 2005 election to win nine ACs.
