Left citadel crumbles in saffron storm

New Delhi: As its central leadership kept debating the “political-tactical” line to be followed, the last Left bastion of Tripura sang a requiem to the CPI(M) with the party being reduced to just 16 seats in the state where it had been in power for 25 years.

This was the first straight fight between the two ideological extremes — the BJP and the Left — a battle which the saffron party won overwhelmingly showing the deep disconnect the CPI(M) had developed with the masses, which had kept it in power for such long years in the state.

Officially the CPI(M) claimed that it still had 42.7 per cent of the vote share and the BJP had used money power to win 35 seats and corner 43 per cent of the votes. BJP ally IPFT won eight seats and got 7.5 per cent of the vote share.

“After 25 years in government, the Left Front has been voted out of office... The party will carefully examine reasons for this electoral setback and take necessary remedial measures,” the party said in a statement.

However, sources maintained that the disastrous results in Tripura will lead to a deeper divide within the party and knives would be out on whether the CPI(M) needed an alliance with the Congress at the national level or not.

While the faction led by party general secretary Sitaram Yechury has been propagating an alliance with the Congress to keep the BJP out, the Prakash Karat camp is for equal distance from the BJP and the Congress. Though the final line would be decided at the party congress to be held in April, the Kerala faction led by Mr Karat, which is numerically stronger, has already managed to get its own draft accepted at the central committee meeting in January.

The defeat in Tripura though is being seen as a setback for the Karat camp with which chief minister Manik Sarkar was aligned.