In a joint statement a day after the Bihar assembly election results, Left parties have said that they will go to the Election Commission to complain about “irregularities during the last stages of counting.”
“The Left parties are of the opinion that there were certain clear irregularities during the last stages of the counting that need to be seriously addressed by the Election Commission. Along with other partners of the Mahagathbandhan, the Left parties will take up these matters with the Election Commission of India,” the statement said.
The statement signed by CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, CPI general secretary D. Raja and CPI(ML) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya said that the vote share of both the alliances is “very very small.”
“The BJP-led alliance lost 12 per cent from the votes it polled in the 2019 Lok Sabha election,” the statement said.
The joint statement pointed out that Janata Dal (United) led by incumbent Chief Minister Nitish Kumar won only 43 seats, as compared to the 71 it won in the last assembly elections. “The CM’s defection from the Mahagathbandhan to the BJP is, amongst other factors, rejected by a large section of the electorate,” the statement said.
The Left parties together won 16 out of the 29 seats they contested: CPI(ML) – 12, CPI(M) – 2, and CPI – 2.
The three parties also patted their own backs saying the Mahagatbandhan managed to counter Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP’s effort to communally polarise the electorate, by keeping the focus on economic distress caused by the lockdown, the utter failure of the BJP and its allies in containing the pandemic, and the galloping unemployment.
The parties said the victory of 16 MLAs would ensure that all crucial issues like jobs and social/economic injustices would be raised.