Bengal, Kerala ouster reduces Left to near-irrelevance

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The ouster from the red bastion, West Bengal, and defeat in Kerala has reduced the Left, particularly the CPI(M), to a near- irrelevance in the national politics. The Marxists now, hold power only in Tripura.

In Bengal, the Left parties with only 60 seats in its coffer, faced its worst-ever electoral debacle. In the House of 294, the Left parties enjoyed a brutal majority of 235 MLAs.
Following rout, the tremors are now being felt at the national headquarters in New Delhi. The CPI(M) politburo is expected to meet on May 16 in the national capital to take stock of the situation.
Sources disclosed that within the party, anger is brewing against CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat, who “virtually demolished the party at the national level”.
Expelled CPI(M) leader and former Speaker Somnath Chatterjee felt that the party fared poorly as “there was a disconnect with the people and party leaders could not understand the mood of the people”.
Arrogance blended with ignorance virtually resulted the Left parties’ marginalisation in the national politics. The CPI(M), big brother of the Left Front, ignored the signals during the 2009 general elections, when the party was reduced to 16 seats from 42 in 2004.
Mr Karat and his politburo team had promised to analyse the results and make corrections. “Nothing was done, instead we kept dabbling in factional politics within the party,” a central committee member of the party said.
Mr Karat and his wife and politburo member Brinda Karat “systematically weeded out all opposition and tried to fill the central committee with their loyalists”, the functionary maintained.
The Marxists had become a key player at the national level, after then general secretary Harkishen Singh Surjeet virtually transformed the party line and joined hands with the Congress at the national level. Under Surjeet, the party began drifting from its original line of “dictatorship of the proletariat” to a more moderate line. Surjeet and the then Bengal chief minister Jyoti Basu had realised that the CPI(M) had to participate in the Centre to make its presence felt in the national politics. However, Mr Karat, Mr Sitaram Yechury had blocked Basu from taking over as the Prime Minister of the country. This, Basu later described as a “historic blunder”.
With 42 seats in 2004 in Lok Sabha, the CPI(M)-led Left was virtually controlling the survival of the UPA-I. Its strength in the Lok Sabha also gave the party the advantage to work as a “watchdog” in the Centre. The Left had virtually stolen the thunder from Opposition BJP, when it began dictating terms to the government on the policy issues.
However, with Mr Karat at the helm of affairs, the party began losing its grip over ground reality. A JNU brand politician, Mr Karat was more clued to international issues, rather than domestic politics. His decision to snap ties with the UPA over the Indo-US nuclear deal was resented by all the top leaders in CPI(M), ranging from politburo member Sitaram Yechury to veteran leader Jyoti Basu. He was warned that any move to snap ties with the Congress would harm the party at the national level. Yet Mr Karat went ahead with his decision to delink the Left with the UPA.
Under Mr Karat, the CPI(M) for the first time failed to open its account during the last Uttar Pardesh Assembly polls, it drew a blank in the Bihar Assembly polls.
A senior party leader said, “At the national level we are losing our political relevance. Our slogans, our ideologies are not being accepted by the mass. There needs to be a drastic change in the party line and leadership.”