‘Other parties claim that is impossible as there are major alliance parties better equipped to win the polls’.
New Delhi
The Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation in Bihar has sought five seats in Bihar from the I.N.D.I.A bloc. However, the other parties claim that such number of seats is impossible to get as there are major parties in the alliance who are better equipped to win the elections.
A political expert said, “The Congress-led alliance cannot afford to lose in Bihar and for that, they will have to ensure smooth understanding over seat-sharing and give proportionate seats to the parties who have bigger cadre and bigger connect on the ground. The RJD and JDU already are big parties who have much greater standing in the state. If JDU, which had won 16 seats last time, abandons a seat and takes 15, RJD won’t take any lesser than that in the upcoming general elections. There are even talks that the Congress may not get more than 6 seats, so the question of CPIML Liberation getting 5 seats may not materialise. They would try to work out on it as soon they can.”
In 2019, CPI (ML) had sought to contest on five seats of Ara, Siwan, Karakat, Jehanabad and Patliputra in an alliance with RJD. However, the RJD had offered them only one which they refused to take and eventually contested the elections alone on four Lok Sabha seats where they drew a blank. The BJP won the most number of seats by being triumphant on 17 out of 40, followed by its then ally JDU which had won 16. Third and fourth spot was secured by then Lok Janshakti Party (6) led by Ram Vilas Paswan and Congress (1) respectively.
Earlier, in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, CPI (ML) had contested from Ara, Siwan, Karakat, Jehanabad and Patliputra. Raju Yadav had contested from Ara, Amarnath Yadav from Siwan, Ramdhar Singh from Jehanabad, Raja Ram Singh from Karakat and Rameshwar Prasad from Patliputra. Raju Yadav and Amarnath Yadav had secured third positions in the hustings.
In the 2015 Assembly elections, CPIML Liberation contested jointly along with CPI, CPI(M), CPIML, RSP, Forward block, and SUCI(C) as a third alternative to the National Democratic Alliance and the Mahagathbandhan of Lalu Prasad Yadav and Nitish Kumar. The party won the seats of Darauli, Balrampur and Tarari) each. The party had a vote percentage of 1.5% in the state. All the left parties together have a vote percentage of 3.59%.
CPI(ML) Liberation contested the 2020 Bihar Legislative Assembly election as part of the Mahagathbandhan, an alliance of the UPA and the leftist parties led by the Rashtriya Janata Dal. The party secured 12 seats with a vote percentage of 3.16%, making it the fifth largest party in the Bihar Legislative Assembly. However, the Mahagathbandhan lost the election to the rival National Democratic Alliance.