New Delhi: In the CPI(M), it's always been Karat's line versus Yechury’s line. While the hawkish former general secretary Prakash Karat favoured maintaining an equal distance from the Congress and the BJP, present party chief Sitaram Yechury, a moderate face, favoured tactical alliances for the party's growth.
The Bengal results have, however, dented Yechury's much-flaunted move to ally with the Congress. While in the Marxist corridors cadre were whispering about the ‘tactical error’, Trinamul supremo Mamata Banerjee, flushed with victory, described the alliance as the ‘greatest blunder’.
The CPI(M), which had joined hands with the Congress in Bengal, was in a direct fight with the Congress-led UDF in Kerala. It's being argued the defeat in Bengal and victory in Kerala vindicated the ‘Vishkhapatnam line’ of the party.
In the 21st CPI(M) Party Congress held at Vishkhapatnam, talking about the ‘political-tactical line’, former party boss Karat had said, "While the main direction of the struggle is against the BJP, the party will continue to oppose the Congress as it pursues neo-liberal policies."
He maintained that "it's the Congress-led UPA government’s anti-people policies and corruption which helped BJP to come to power. Therefore, the political line precludes having any understanding or electoral alliance with the Congress."
Pulling in the other direction, Yechury -- backed by former Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya -- forged an alliance with the Congress. Bhattacharya even shared the dais with Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi at an election rally in Bengal.
If the Karat camp was pointing fingers at "Yechury's electoral misadventure", the CPI(M) general secretary maintained the party "respected the verdict of the people with all humility in Bengal" and that it would "examine and review the results in order to draw proper lessons from it". Yechury further claimed the vote share of CPI(M) has remained more or less the same in the state for the party as compared to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. The CPI(M)'s Central Committee and state committee will meet
shortly to review the Bengal debacle.
The Left parties, both CPI and CPI(M), talked about a ‘serious introspection’ in West Bengal and said their impressive performance in Kerala was ‘historic’ yet ‘expected’.
