CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat has come directly under fire within the party after the Left, led by the CPI(M), has failed to win a single seat in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections.
Mr Karat has held direct charge of UP for more than two decades with the sole aim of reviving the party in the cowbelt, senior party leaders said.
A section of the party is now blaming Mr Karat for repeated routs faced by the CPI(M), virtually putting the party’s political existence at stake.
A section within the CPI(M) is ruing the fact that the party did not join hands with the Samajwadi Party despite the realisation that an alliance with the SP would have helped its efforts to build up a ‘’non-Congress, non-BJP’’ platform.
Party leaders accused Mr Karat of another blunder of joining hands with BSP supremo Mayawati in 2009 to project a third front during the Lok Sabha polls which dashed all hopes of the party’s revival in the state.
The CPI(M) fought 17 seats in UP, nine in Punjab, six in Uttarakhand and two each in Uttarakhand and Goa.
All candidates have lost wiping out the CPI(M)’s presence in the political scenario in the five states. Incidentally, CPI(M) politburo member Brinda Karat is in charge of Uttarakhand.
The forthcoming party central committee meet and the party congress in April will discuss the leadership and organisational failures of the party.
What is more worrying for the party is the fact that its assessment of the outcome of the Assembly polls in five states has also gone completely wrong, indicating that the party state units have lost touch with the ground reality.
The state unit of the CPI(M) was confident of winning at least one seat in UP while the party was predicting a Congress victory in Punjab.
Party sources pointed out that ever since Mr Karat became general secretary in 2005, the party also lost all seats in five states, namely Assam, Bihar, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka.
On the outcome of the UP polls, CPI(M) politburo member Sitaram Yechury said that it was clear that the people did not want Ms Mayawati to come to power. “What was unclear was who will benefit from this. But it has now become clear that the anti-Mayawati wave went in favour of the SP,” he said.