Stellar performance revives Left in Bihar, adds numbers to Grand Alliance

The Left parties’ hard bargain with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) demanding more seats before the Grand Alliance (GA) was stitched together paid off well not only for the three Left parties, but also for the GA in raising its total seat count.

Banking on the cadre strength, the Left parties are leading on 15 out of the 29 seats contested. Among the three Left parties—CPI (M), CPI and CPI (ML) — the best striking rate was of CPI (ML) with it leading on 11 seats.

“The Left parties have given their best performance, which is unprecedented,” said a senior party leader of CPI (ML).

Before the announcement of seat-sharing, the three Left parties held several rounds of meetings separately with RJD state president Jagdanand Singh demanding more share in the GA pie.

While the two Left parties—CPI (M) was satisfied with four seats and CPI six—a sulking CPI (ML) kept its ante up exhibiting an appetite for more seats.

The CPI (ML) had released a list of 30 seats in September end, citing that it could not wait for ‘eternity’ for the call of RJD to stitch an alliance. It, in fact, stuck to its stand that it should get the seats where it had the strength of cadre.

CPI (ML) state secretary Kunal said the party had asked for 53 seats but made a climb down to 20 seats “for the sake of unity among secular forces to defeat the NDA”.

However, later as the talks moved on the deal was struck and of the 243 seats, the CPI (ML) got 19, CPI (M) four and CPI six.

In 2015 assembly election, the CPI (ML) had won three seats, including Balrampur, Darauli and Tarari, while the CPI and CPM drew a blank.

The star player, CPI (ML), was leading on 12 out of the 19 seats it contested. Among the surprising victory was of party candidate from Paliganj, Sandeep Saurav, who is also an ex-JNUSU office-bearer. “The fight between JD (U)’s Jay Vardhan Yadav alias Baccha Yadav, who switched from the RJD before election, and Usha Vidyarthi, who contested on a LJP ticket after she was denied a ticket from BJP, benefitted Saurav,” said a close aide of Saurav.

The CPI, contesting on six seats, including Bakhri, Teghra, Bachhwara in Begusarai district besides Harlakhi and Jhanjharpur in Darbhanga and Rupauli in Purnia district made a good performance in Begusarai district considered ‘Leningrad of Bihar’, where it won on one and was leading on two. Its state secretary, Ram Naresh Pandey, contesting from Harlakhi in Darbhanga was trailing behind by about 3,000 votes from JD (U) candidate Sudhansu Shekhar.

CPI senior party leader and former JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar had focused his campaigning in Begusarai.

The CPI (M) was leading on one seat out of the four it contested.