April 11, 2018: The CPIM leaders in Tripura ultimately confessed that they misread the BJP-RSS Poll strategy and suffered a defeat which will hit the countrywide Left Movement. Limited to only three states – West Bengal, Tripura and Kerala – CPIM led Left Front found themselves after losing poll battle in West Bengal to Mamata Banerjee led Trinamool Congress. In 2018 Tripura Assembly election, Leftists were up against – for the first time – BJP-RSS and CPIM lost the poll battle decisively. Loss in Tripura will affect the Left Movement at the national level, but for temporary period as Party will overcome the present challenging situation, said secretary of CPIM State Committee Bijan Dhar today in Agartala while briefing about two-Central Committee meeting of the Party which was concluded today in Agartala. CPIM Politburo member of the Party Prakash Karat was among the attendees.
Pondering over the weakness of the Party’s poll strategy, Dhar said, “To woo voters, the BJP invested huge money much ahead of elections. We did not give due importance to BJP-RSS’s organisational and other activities to woo different communities.”
Training guns on BJP-IPFT combine, Dhar commented, “Multifarious conspiracies involving the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), different central Ministers, BJP and IPFT, helped in saffron party’s win. Even though Congress and other political parties were present, a majority of anti-Left votes consolidated in favour of BJP-IPFT alliance.”
The two-day meeting also discussed about taking initiatives to involve younger generations and evoked their interest towards the left politics, he said and added, “We have sought the attention over post-poll violence in the state allegedly by the BJP. We will meet the Chief Minister on the issue shortly. We have sought appointment for this.”