Politburo admits erosion of votes

Thiruvananthapuram: CPM politburo on Monday admitted that the Left suffered a severe setback in the elections especially in their strongholds. The central committee of the party will meet from June 7 to 9, discuss the reports submitted by state units.

Proper lessons would be drawn on the basis of serious introspection on the experience of these elections, the party said after the politburo meeting in Delhi on Monday. “The electoral base of the CPI(M) saw a big erosion in our strongholds.  The Politburo discussed some of the issues that led to this erosion,” it said.

The CPM said after the discussions in the forthcoming Central Commit-tee meeting, proper lesso-ns would be taken on the basis of a serious introspection and the experiences of these elections.  The State Committees in states where CPM has wider base will hold separate meetings and self-critically evaluate the party’s performance ahead of the CC meeting.

Based on the outcome of these discussions the central committee will draw up the required corrective measures in order to strengthen the CPI(M)’s independent strength and its capacities of political intervention through popular struggles.

A statement issued after the PB meeting said most opposition parties, barring those from Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and a few other states, had witnessed a big loss in these elections.

The BJP could successfully shift the popular narrative away from the multitude of livelihood issues that the last five years of the NDA government had imposed.  “The narrative built around communal nationalist jingoism, along with the issues of fighting terrorism, brushed aside all other issues of day-to-day concerns of the people. This was aided by the build-up of the Modi persona through a combination of factors.  These included the effective use of technology and its instruments of messaging to the people backed by big data analytics and micro level social engineering,” he added.

The CPM said a section of the media partnered such projection backed by massive money power.  The role of the Election Commission was also a factor that permitted the build-up of such a narrative.  This process was assisted by the vast network of RSS affiliated organisations.

The party thanked all those who have voted for its candidates, three of whom – 2 from Tamilnadu and 1 from Kerala – have been elected to the 17th Lok Sabha.

During the course of the elections, two Left supporters have lost their lives in West Bengal and one in Tripura. In both the states, post-poll violence continues. This is taking a dangerous turn towards communal clashes.

The party said soon after the declaration of results, incidents of  attacks on minorities from Haryana, Madhya Pradesh are coming in.