Down to just five MPs in the 17th Lok Sabha, the Left parties, part of the opposition INDIA bloc, are engaged in a do-or-die battle in this general election after hitting an all-time low tally in the 2019 polls.
CPI(M) leader AK Balan (Facebook)
Senior CPI(M) leader AK Balan on Saturday, 23 March, claimed there were attempts to destroy the Left movement in the country which provides an alternative to the communal and corporate forces. He added that the party needs to retain its national party status by garnering more votes and seats in Parliament.
Addressing a meeting of Kerala State Financial Enterprises (KSFE) Officers’ Union in Kozhikode, Balan said the Left party cannot lose its identity and cannot afford to lose its poll symbol in case the vote share goes down.
Down to just five MPs in the 17th Lok Sabha, the Left parties, part of the Opposition INDIA bloc, are engaged in a do-or-die battle in this general election after hitting an all-time low tally in the 2019 polls.
The Left parties, prominent among which are the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Communist Party of India, Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation, Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) and All-India Forward Bloc, have witnessed a steep decline in their electoral performance over the last two decades.
The RSP is part of the Congress-led UDF in Kerala.
For the CPI(M), its status as a national party is also at stake with its shrinking footprint. Currently, Kerala is the only state where the Left party is in power.
“There are attempts to destroy the Left movement in the country. Now in this election, we have an official poll symbol for the party. But in case if we fail to garner a stipulated percentage of votes or number of MPs, then our party’s national status will be changed and become an ‘independent party’,” Balan cautioned the party workers.
He said then the party’s symbol would be changed to some random one. “Then we’ll have to campaign for our senior leaders using independent symbols. We cannot lose our identity,” Balan said.
He also claimed the BJP considered the Left party, which has been providing an alternative to the communal and corporate forces in the country, and the Left government in Kerala as their number one enemy.
He said as the saffron party was unable to take on the Left movement in Kerala, the NDA government had decided to financially strangulate the state.
“If we are given what is due to us, then we will implement all the social welfare measures which the people will support. So they (the Centre) blocked our funding,” Balan said.
The polling in Kerala for the Lok Sabha polls will be on 26 April. The results will be declared on 4 June.
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