The Bihar results have delivered a major blow to CPI (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation with its double-digit tally of 12 seats in 2020 plummeting to mere two seats – Karakat and Paliganj – out of the 20 it contested this time. The party that traces its beginnings to mass movements and grassroots mobilisation among the landless and marginalised failed to retain even its strongholds.

While describing the election outcome as “unnatural and not a reflection of ground reality” and claiming that the result was facilitated by deletion and addition of voters and by dispensing dole to women, party general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya did acknowledge the need for parties in the Mahagathbandhan to “introspect” on this severe setback. The CPIML(L) certainly needed to take a closer look at its strategy. Not only has it lost in its strongholds, the party which played a crucial role in keeping together the rather fragile alliance is set to lose its place as one of the key anchors because of the abysmal performance.In what was seen as a strong comeback in 2020, the Left party had secured 12 of the 19 seats it contested as part of the Mahagathbandhan, emerging as a critical force with grassroots influence in belts like Bhojpur, Siwan and Arrah. Its influence in the opposition alliance was evident ahead of the current polls. Through the power-play over ticket distribution and declaration of Tejashwi Yadav as the CM face of the alliance, one saw Bhattacharya playing a key role in ironing out differences between RJD and Congress.The other Left parties too have performed poorly, with CPM winning just 1 of 4 seats as against 2 last time and CPI, which had won 2 seats last time, failing to open its account though it contested 6.