The CPI(M) on Monday shifted blame for erosion in its base and poor performance in the elections to 17th Lok Sabha on the BJP.
“The CPI(M) and the Left have suffered a severe setback in these elections. The electoral base of the CPI(M) saw a big erosion in our strongholds,” said party chief Sitaram Yechury, while giving details of three-day meeting of the Polit Bureau, which concluded yesterday.
The Polit Bureau meet discussed the results of the elections in which the Left parties in all won five seats, including three by CPI(M) and two by CPI.
Other than a seat from the Left-ruled state of Kerala, both the parties won two each in Tamil Nadu.
The Left drew a blank in its traditional strongholds of West Bengal and Tripura.
Yechury said the CPI(M)’s central committee will hold a three-day session here, starting June 7, to discuss threadbare the reasons for the Left’s electoral debacle, and to formulate a plan for its revival.
In the interregnum, the state units will meet to discuss the issue, and submit their reports to the party.
The dominant view of leaders in the Polit Bureau meeting was that the BJP outsmarted the opposition parties by successfully shifting the popular narrative during elections away from livelihood issues on which the NDA government had failed.
The narrative built around communal national jingoism, along with issues of fighting terrorism, brushed aside all other issues of day-to-day concerns of people, he said.
This was aided by the build-up of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s persona through a combination of factors, including harnessing of effective technology and instrument of messaging to the people backed by a big data analytics and micro-level social engineering, Yechury added.
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