Unnatural, inexplicable,”: Left says after Bihar debacle

The tally of Left parties, a key component of the opposition alliance in Bihar, has come down from 16 in 2020 to 3 this time

Leaders say the results didn’t align with the ground realities, especially after their strong performance in 2020 and 2024 elections

Four Left candidates lost by small margins but nearly half their candidates were defeated by margins exceeding 20,000 votes

Left parties, which were a crucial component of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD)-Congress led opposition alliance in Bihar, suffered a major blow along with its alliance partners in the assembly election.

The Left’s tally, which stood at 16 in the 243-seat Bihar assembly, has now come down to only three. The CPI(ML)(Liberation), which won 12 seats in 2020, has won only two. The CPI(M) managed to retain one of its two seats, while the CPI lost both it won last time.

CPI(ML)(Liberation) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya described the results as “highly unnatural and inexplicable.” He said that the Left’s performance, as well as that of the alliance, was similar to that of the 2010 Bihar election results, though the situation was largely different.

According to him, 2010 was Nitish Kumar’s early years as the chief minister and people’s overwhelming trust in him could be understood and explained.

“But this time, given our performance in the 2020 assembly election and the 2024 Lok Sabha election, the result came completely against the run of play and does not correspond to what one sees on the ground,” Bhattacharya told Outlook. “We need to study and investigate,” he said.

The party won two Lok Sabha seats in 2024, its best electoral performance. In just about a year and a half, the party was left shocked.

Sandeep Sourav managed to retain his seat by a margin of 6,655 votes and Karakat MLA Arun Singh won by 2,836 votes. Some of the seats saw narrow margin defeats—Agaion in Bhojpur by only 95 votes, Dumraon by 2,105 votes and Ziradei by 2,139 votes.

In Balrampur, a sharp split of Muslim votes between the alliance and the All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) resulted in the defeat of veteran Leftist legislator Mahboob Alam, widely known for his spartan lifestyle.

However, in most cases, the margins were significant. In Darauli, CPI(ML) veteran and incumbent MLA Satyadeo Ram lost by 9,572 votes. In Bhojpur district’s Tarari, a long-time stronghold, Liberation veteran Madan Singh lost by 11,464 votes. In Karakat district’s Arwal, party veteran and incumbent, Mahanand Singh, lost by 14,209 votes. The Ghosi candidate lost by 11,239 votes.

In Digha, Rajgir, Kalyanpur and Sikta the party lost by massive margins of 59,079 votes, 52,383 votes, 38,586 votes, 37,816 votes respectively. The Warisnagar, Phulbari, Pipra, and Arrah candidates were also set for defeats by margins exceeding 20,000 votes.

In Bhorey, the CPI(ML)(Liberation) candidate Jitendra Paswan was arrested in a decades old case soon after his candidature was announced. The party swiftly named a student leader as the new candidate and hoped that the party would have the sympathy of the voters for how its original candidate was ‘harassed.’ However, chief minister Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) retained the seat with a margin of over 16,000 votes.

It was the alliance with the RJD and the Congress that helped the party’s electoral rise in 2020. Now, they suffer the same fate as their alliance partners.