With the CPI winning only three of the 35 seats it contested and with only one of the 10 CPI(M) candidates managing a win, the Left were clearly not a factor in the Bihar polls. But the decision to go separate ways in the state—the Marxists joined the RJD-Congress combine while the CPI formed a ‘‘secular alternative’’ with the LJP, RSP and Forward Bloc—cost them the odd seat.Consider Begusarai, once a CPI stronghold, which was won by the BJP’s Bhola Singh. The BJP got 39,768 votes. The CPI’s Kamli Mahato with 27,733 votes was next in line, followed by Upender Singh of the LJP (19,937 votes) and the CPI(M)’s Rajendra Prasad Singh (14,930 votes). Add the votes of the left parties: it is a winning 42,663 votes. The CPI’s ally LJP also played spoilsport, taking away nearly 20,000 votes.The two big left parties also slugged it out in the two other constituencies of Rajgir(SC) and Barauni. Even though the CPI came out winner with 34,102 votes in Barauni, also a Left stronghold once, the Marxists did take away 16,174 votes. These votes could have become crucial considering the BJP candidate, who came second with 29,145 votes, was not far behind. In Rajgir(SC) where the two parties contested against each other, their combined strength did not add up to much. BJP’s winning candidate Satyadeo Narain Arya garnered 36,344 ballots, far more than the CPI’s 10,328 and the CPI(M)’s 14,930 votes.The CPI’s poor ground base in the area is evident in that in as many as 19 of the 35 constituencies it contested its candidates each got just around 5,000 votes. The Marxists’ tallied less than 10,000 votes in five of the 10 constituencies where it put up candidates.The only saving grace for the two parties was that both maintained the seat count they logged in the February polls. The CPI had won three seats in the last polls and the CPI(M) one.Another Left party, the CPI(M-L, Liberation), which at one time was on course for an alliance with the CPI, RSP and the Forward Bloc, won only five of the 85 seats it contested. It had hoped to improve its tally of seven it won in the February polls.
