Notwithstanding the mauling they have received in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, the Left parties on Friday welcomed the BSP victory in the state and said that it would be easier now for a candidate with “impeccable secular credentials” to get elected to the post of President.
“Given the present equation in UP the chances of a secular candidate winning the Presidential elections are better and we welcome that,” CPM politburo member Sitaram Yechury said.
Maintaining that UP poll results had shown that people had rejected the communal agenda, Yechury said the real loser in the election was BJP.
Identifying anti-incumbency factor and the strong urge for change among the people as the reasons for the Samajwadi Party’s setback, the Marxist leader said the deterioration of law and order was an important issue in the polls. Lack of unity among the Left parties was the reason for their poor performance, he said.
“Whenever we take up people’s issues like price rise, they support us, but such support is not translated into votes. We will sit down and introspect on that,” he said.
The CPM and CPI failed to win a single seat in the state's 403-member assembly. Stating that the verdict was clearly against the misgovernance of the Mulayam Singh government, CPI leader D Raja told DH that it was a positive mandate from the people.
“Now at least a secular democratic government will come to power in UP,” he said. Even though the Mulayam government was secular, it’s policies were clearly “anti-people”, he said.
While Forward Bloc and CPM were soft towards the Samajwadi Party, the CPI opposed it fiercely and joined hands with former prime minister V P Singh's Jan Morcha.
The CPM fielded only nine candidates, the CPI 22, Forward Bloc 12 and RSP nine candidates.
Welcoming the poll verdict in UP Forward Bloc leader Debabrata Biswas said the four Left parties would meet on May 16 to formally decide on the Presidential candidate.