E-Paper
After Bengal, Left loses grip in its south bastion
The CPI(M) were virtually decimated in the general elections with the party securing only around 5% votes in West Bengal as against 6.33% in 2019 polls
Kolkata/Agartala/Kochi: The Left, which ruled West Bengal and Tripura for decades together, stared at an existential crisis after failing to bring home even a single Lok Sabha seat in these two states, with the only saving grace being Kerala, where the Communist Party of India (Maxist) candidate K Radhakrishnan won a lone Alathur seat.
In Kerala, the CPI(M) candidate K Radhakrishnan managed to win by a margin of 20,000 votes while many of its high profile candidates such as former state finance minister, Thomas Isaac, and former state health minister, KK Shailaja, failed to register a win. However, the Left Front parties registered about 32% vote share, almost double than that of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) 16.7% vote share, as compared to 35% of the Congress.
The CPI(M) were virtually decimated in the general elections with the party securing only around 5% votes in West Bengal as against 6.33% in 2019 polls.
The CPI(M)’s strategy of fielding student leaders failed to strike a chord with first generation voters as the party secured the third position in several of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in the eastern state.
Meanwhile, in Tripura, the ruling BJP marked its second consecutive victory in two Lok Sabha seats, defeating the Left and Congress alliance. Former chief minister and BJP candidate Biplab Kumar Deb defeated Congress candidate Ashish Kumar Saha in West Tripura constituency while the East Tripura constituency was bagged by BJP’s Kriti Devi Debbarman, who was pitted against CPI(M) candidate Rajendra Reang.
