Left suffers major setback in Bihar Assembly elections

NEW DELHI: The Left parties in Bihar failed on Friday to repeat their striking performance from the 2020 Assembly elections, delivering one of its weakest showings in recent times. Along with the other constituents of the Mahagathbandhan or the grand alliance, which forms the broader opposition front, the Left parties struggled to hold ground as early trends against them solidified into decisive setbacks. The Communist Party of India Marxist Marxist-Leninist Liberation (CPIML) managed to secure only one seat. In Paliganj, its candidate Sandeep Saurav defeated Sunil Kumar of the Lok Janshakti Party Ram Vilas with a margin of over six thousand six hundred votes. By six in the evening, the party was locked in another tight contest in Karakat where its nominee Arun Singh was engaged in a neck-and-neck fight with Mahabali Singh of the Janata Dal United. Meanwhile, Ajay Kumar of the Communist Party of India Marxist was leading in Bibhutipur with more than seventy nine thousand votes. Bihar swings for Ni-Mo: NDA poised for landslide under CM Nitish and PM Modi The Left combined had contested thirty-three seats in all. The CPI ML fielded candidates in twenty constituencies while the Communist Party of India and the Communist Party of India Marxist fought in nine and four seats respectively. As the scale of defeat became apparent, leaders of the Communist Party of India Marxist-Leninist Liberation said they were stunned by what they described as an unimaginable outcome. A senior functionary argued that the traditional support base appeared to have shifted back entirely to the Janata Dal United. He alleged that an institutional mechanism of what he termed vote theft carried out under the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, along with the state government's announcement of ten thousand rupees for women voters influenced the final outcome. In 2020, the Communist Party of India Marxist Leninist Liberation had emerged as the strongest Left force, winning twelve of the nineteen seats it contested and securing over three percent of the vote share. Bihars fondness for 'Sushasan Babu' ensures Nitish Kumar remains in the spotlight Reacting to the results, Communist Party of India general secretary D Raja said that the parties of the INDIA alliance must conduct serious introspection. He recalled that the campaign had drawn significant public attention with crowds responding to issues such as unemployment, migration of Bihari workers, rural deprivation, and the condition of women across the State. The CPI and CPM had also improved their performance in 2020 but failed to build on that momentum this time. Political observers said the results reflected the erosion of the Mahagathbandhans broader appeal and the Lefts struggle to consolidate its base in a rapidly shifting political landscape. The Communist Party of India Marxist described the National Democratic Alliance victory as a setback, pointing to what it called the misuse of state machinery the deployment of vast financial resources, and the amplification of polarising rhetoric by senior leaders. In a statement, the party said defeating the Bharatiya Janata Party would require a far more unified opposition effort and added that it would continue to lead struggles for the rights of the oppressed and the exploited. Bihar Elections 2025: Prashant Kishor's Jan Suraaj Party fails to make waves