Only seat lost, CPM says BJP victory of no national consequence

There may not have been a major Left presence in the Karnataka election scenario, but the Left parties’ worries are as big as that of any other party there.

There may not have been a major Left presence in the Karnataka election scenario, but the Left parties’ worries are as big as that of any other party there.

First of all, the CPM has lost its only Assembly seat, Bagepally, which it had been retaining in the last two elections. What’s worse, the seat has been wrested by the Congess, its ally at the Centre. The CPM candidate G V Sriram Reddy lost out by a mere 932 votes.

The CPM and the CPI did not have an alliance in Karnataka though they were careful not to field candidates against each other. Both fielded nine candidates each in the elections.

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“The Congress party wanted to have alliance with us. But the party did not want that,” said CPM state secretary V J K Nair. According to him, the party had extended support to Congress and JD(S) candidates, especially in Gulbarga and Tumkur districts, against BJP rivals.

CPI(M) maintains that the Karnataka results does not have much national significance. According to Politburo member Sitaram Yechury, the BJP came first because the “secular votes got divided.” He maintained that the BJP victory will have no implication in the national political scenario.

EXCLUSIVE: EC brings in feature to check misuse of identity to seek voter list deletions

Political Pulse32 min ago

The Election Commission has launched a new 'e-sign' feature on its portal and app to prevent fraud. This comes after allegations of misuse of online voter deletion forms in Karnataka. The feature requires voters to verify their identity using their Aadhaar-linked phone numbers, reducing the possibility of fraud.

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