October 22, 2020 10:27:04 am
National Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) (CPI-ML), Dipankar Bhattacharya, with Politburo member Kavita Krishnan and other leaders, publishes the party’s manifesto for the Bihar Assembly elections in Patna , on Thursday, October 15, 2020 (PTI photo). )
While both the CPI and the CPM have supported the RJD and Lalu Prasad in the past, it is the first time that the CPI (ML) has joined the Grand Alliance in Bihar. Of the 29 constituencies handed over to left-wing parties in state elections this year (the RJD is competing for 144 seats and Congress for 70), the CPI (ML) will compete for 19 seats, and the CPI and CPM for six. and four. seats respectively.
During the negotiations to share seats, the CPI (ML) managed to negotiate well. The party was allocated 19 seats due to its presence in Siwan, Arwal, Jehananad, rural Patna and Katihar, although it only has three MLAs in the outgoing Assembly.
The CPI (ML) had won six seats in 2000, seven in the February 2005 Assembly elections and five in the October 2005 elections. He was left blank in the 2010 elections, when the NDA won 206 of 243 seats.
One of the reasons for the high allocation of seats to the CPI (ML) is that the Grand Alliance believes that it can perform a mutual conversion of votes with the RJD and Congress unlike, say, the RLSP or the HAM (S). The RLSP and HAM (S) left the Grand Alliance after the RJD refused to accommodate them in the seat talks.
The CPI has a base in Begusarai, Madhubani, Khagaria and a few other districts.
The parties of the left also bring two more crucial elements to the Grand Alliance: all three are cadre-based parties, which helps increase the reach of the Mahagathbandhan, and their loyalty is not in doubt because ideologically they are at the other end of the spectrum. of the BJP.
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