NEW DELHI: The INDIA block’s performance in Bihar in the Lok Sabha polls was affected as it made “certain mistakes” there, including in ticket distribution, CPI (ML) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya said. In an interview with PTI editors at the party’s headquarters, the Left Party leader did not rule out that the “Nitish Kumar factor” was also one of the reasons for the lower than expected results in the polls.
Bihar Chief Minister Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) was in an alliance with the Rashtriya Janata Dal-Congress-Left ‘Mahagathbandhan’ group in Bihar and a constituent of the opposition INDIA bloc, but jumped to the National Democratic Alliance led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (NDA) just before the 2024 general elections.
The general secretary of the Liberation Party of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) hoped that the members of the INDIA bloc, the RJD, the Congress and the left parties, including his CPI (ML), would do better in the elections of the assembly in the state next year.
While the BJP and its NDA partners, JD(U), Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) and Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) won 30 of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in the state, the INDIA bloc could win nine. One was won by independent candidate Pappu Yadav.
The CPI(ML) leader said that in Purnia an independent candidate, Yadav, won as the RJD refused to give up the seat to the Congress. The CPI(ML) had contested the Siwan seat, but the RJD fought and finished third, with the JD(U) winning, said Bhattacharya, whose party won two seats – Arrah and Karakat.
“Certain mistakes probably had a cascading effect. They affected several seats. To give just one example in Purnia, Pappu Yadav managed to win the seat. But it is unthinkable for an official RJD candidate to have less than 30,000 votes in this type of election. polarized, the entire party supports that candidate with all its weight,” he stated.
Yadav had joined the Congress before the Lok Sabha elections, but fought as an independent after the RJD refused to give up the seat to the Congress and fielded Bima Bharti, who could get only 27,000 votes.
“This has probably affected a large number of seats, they may be Araria, Supaul and Madhepura,” Bhattacharya said.
Similarly, the CPI(ML) had a very legitimate and strong claim on Siwan and “I received feedback from all sources that with an ML candidate in the race, we could have won Siwan,” he said.
“That probably could have secured a number of southern commission seats – Siwan, Chhapra and Maharajganj, may be even Gopalganj. So these are some mistakes, probably avoidable mistakes, that cost us some seats (in Bihar).” Bhattacharya said.
“But more than that, I think we have to find out why again we could not do well in north Bihar. If you look at the Assembly election results, our best performance was in south Bihar. Once again (in the Lok Sabha polls), our best performance has been in south Bihar,” he said.
Bhattacharya said that in Mithila, Champaran, Saran and Koshi in north Bihar, “this is where I think, once again, the NDA has done much better.” “So we need to look at what’s really going wrong there,” he said.
Without ruling out the “Nitish Kumar factor”, he said that while it was expected that the JD(U) or the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) would suffer losses and the BJP would emerge unscathed, the results were different.
“It is the BJP that has suffered the biggest loss in Bihar,” Bhattacharya said.
In the 2024 polls, the BJP fought on 17 seats and won 12, up from 17 in 2019, while the JD(U) contested 16 seats this time and won 12, up from 16 in 2019.
“So there are things where almost all the pollsters, including those who got it right about UP, didn’t get it right about Bihar. It is probably the Nitish Kumar factor,” he said.
When asked about the expectations of the INDIA bloc in the Bihar assembly elections next year, he said he is hopeful of a good performance.
Bhattacharya pointed out that politics in Bihar is undergoing a generational change.
“So, a lot of work will have to be done to overcome this. I hope it will be our next election. Because Bihar is in a transitional state,” he said.
Bihar Chief Minister Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) was in an alliance with the Rashtriya Janata Dal-Congress-Left ‘Mahagathbandhan’ group in Bihar and a constituent of the opposition INDIA bloc, but jumped to the National Democratic Alliance led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (NDA) just before the 2024 general elections.
The general secretary of the Liberation Party of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) hoped that the members of the INDIA bloc, the RJD, the Congress and the left parties, including his CPI (ML), would do better in the elections of the assembly in the state next year.
While the BJP and its NDA partners, JD(U), Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) and Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) won 30 of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in the state, the INDIA bloc could win nine. One was won by independent candidate Pappu Yadav.
The CPI(ML) leader said that in Purnia an independent candidate, Yadav, won as the RJD refused to give up the seat to the Congress. The CPI(ML) had contested the Siwan seat, but the RJD fought and finished third, with the JD(U) winning, said Bhattacharya, whose party won two seats – Arrah and Karakat.
“Certain mistakes probably had a cascading effect. They affected several seats. To give just one example in Purnia, Pappu Yadav managed to win the seat. But it is unthinkable for an official RJD candidate to have less than 30,000 votes in this type of election. polarized, the entire party supports that candidate with all its weight,” he stated.
Yadav had joined the Congress before the Lok Sabha elections, but fought as an independent after the RJD refused to give up the seat to the Congress and fielded Bima Bharti, who could get only 27,000 votes.
“This has probably affected a large number of seats, they may be Araria, Supaul and Madhepura,” Bhattacharya said.
Similarly, the CPI(ML) had a very legitimate and strong claim on Siwan and “I received feedback from all sources that with an ML candidate in the race, we could have won Siwan,” he said.
“That probably could have secured a number of southern commission seats – Siwan, Chhapra and Maharajganj, may be even Gopalganj. So these are some mistakes, probably avoidable mistakes, that cost us some seats (in Bihar).” Bhattacharya said.
“But more than that, I think we have to find out why again we could not do well in north Bihar. If you look at the Assembly election results, our best performance was in south Bihar. Once again (in the Lok Sabha polls), our best performance has been in south Bihar,” he said.
Bhattacharya said that in Mithila, Champaran, Saran and Koshi in north Bihar, “this is where I think, once again, the NDA has done much better.” “So we need to look at what’s really going wrong there,” he said.
Without ruling out the “Nitish Kumar factor”, he said that while it was expected that the JD(U) or the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) would suffer losses and the BJP would emerge unscathed, the results were different.
“It is the BJP that has suffered the biggest loss in Bihar,” Bhattacharya said.
In the 2024 polls, the BJP fought on 17 seats and won 12, up from 17 in 2019, while the JD(U) contested 16 seats this time and won 12, up from 16 in 2019.
“So there are things where almost all the pollsters, including those who got it right about UP, didn’t get it right about Bihar. It is probably the Nitish Kumar factor,” he said.
When asked about the expectations of the INDIA bloc in the Bihar assembly elections next year, he said he is hopeful of a good performance.
Bhattacharya pointed out that politics in Bihar is undergoing a generational change.
“So, a lot of work will have to be done to overcome this. I hope it will be our next election. Because Bihar is in a transitional state,” he said.
