Left Front Chairman Biman Bose with Forward Bloc leader Naren Chatterjee seen here releasing the first list of candidates for 16 of West Bengal's 42 Lok Sabha constituencies for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, in Kolkata, Thursday, March 14, 2024.
Credit: PTI Photo
New Delhi: Coming down heavily on its Left Front partners, the All India Forward Bloc (AIFB) has highlighted the 'one-upmanship' among them during Lok Sabha elections, saying all of them tried to 'stand with someone to somehow' reach Parliament.
It also said during a meeting to review Lok Sabha results that there was no Left unity at the national level and none of them made an attempt to achieve it resulting in the Left “not achieving anything” in the elections. The Forward Bloc said they were “unwilling” to adopt a cohesive approach.
The Forward Bloc’s assessment, which was publicised through a statement, was harsh compared to the assessment of CPI(M), CPI and RSP, which made general public statements about the need for Left unity and a critical review of the performance of respective parties.
While describing the results as a “decisive mandate” to protect the Constitution, democracy and secular character of India, a resolution adopted by the AIFB Central Committee admitted that there was no national level unity among the Left, and no Left party made any attempt at it.
“All the Left parties tried to stand with someone to somehow reach the Parliament. But while doing so, each party forgot to maintain Left unity. Everyone tried to use their influence to get seats from other parties. The Left could not achieve anything in this election because it was unable to maintain unity and was unwilling to adopt a cohesive approach,” it said.
“Due to this, the Left parties did not get the benefit of the anti-fascist struggle waged by the Left parties and its mass organisations across the country,” it said.
Forward Bloc General Secretary G Devarajan told DH that it was sad that the Left Front was not being able to remain a 'corrective force' as there is 'one-upmanship'. He said the question is there is no point in having unity just for protest and not elections.
The Left's presence in Parliament can only increase if the unity demonstrated in protests and seminars is 'sincerely reflected' in the elections as well.
Therefore, the left parties should do "some serious introspection," the resolution said.
While Forward Bloc drew a blank in the Lok Sabha elections with 0.04% votes, CPI(M) won four seats with 1.76% votes, CPI won two seats with 0.49% votes and CPI(ML)L two seats with 0.27% votes.
Devarajan said if the Left parties negotiated together, they could have a better deal from the I.N.D.I.A. partners. “I am not saying the seat should be given Forward Bloc, what I am saying is that if we had collectively bargained, one of the Left parties could have succeeded,” he said.
“With Left partners not in sync, ground level workers of different parties did not feel the need to work united. For example, in Bhadohi seat where Forward Bloc got 5,261 votes, we could have increased it to 10,000 votes if there was united work by the Left,” he said.
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