In a post-election introspection, the Communist Party of India (CPI) has reportedly regretted its decision to make pre-poll alliance with Congress in recently concluded general elections, sources said.
Some members of Left parties have started feeling that due to its alliance with the Congress in Ganjam district, the CPI has sustained a substantial loss of its political base that the results of the recently concluded general elections has proved.
It may be mentioned that in the 2019 elections, the CPI had made an electoral understanding with the Congress in the district and left two seats, Aska Parliamentary and Chhatrapur Assembly, to the CPI to contest. Accordingly, the Congress did not put its candidates in these two seats. According to the party decision, senior CPI leader Ramakrushna Panda contested from the Aska Parliamentary constituency while CPI youth leader Pradip Kumar Sethi contested from the Chhatrapur Assembly seat. Significantly, both the nominees of the CPI were not only defeated but also lost their deposits. CPI Ganjam district secretary Prakash Patra attributed the defeat to the non-cooperation of Congress leaders and workers in these two constituencies.
Had the Congress leaders and workers heartily supported and campaigned for their pre-poll alliance partner-the CPI, the CPI candidates could have garnered an impressive number of votes to defeat the ruling BJD, CPI leaders feel.
Notably, the ruling BJD created a history in Indian polity by putting as its nominee from Aska LS seat an illiterate old woman Pramila Bisoyi who was working as organizer of SHG and hails from a remote village. Similarly, the BJP fielded Anita Priyadarshini, daughter of former Minister Ramakrushna Patnaik who secured 3, 48,042 votes but lost the election. The much talked figure and ruling BJD nominee Bisoyi succeeded in garnering 5,52,749 votes and defeated the BJP nominee Priyadarshini over a margin of nearly 2 lakh votes which surprised the political astrologers here.
The CPI sources have claimed that, on the one hand, the party faced non-cooperation from the Congress and on the other hand the party faced deficit of fund and both the factors led to the defeat of the party nominees, they claimed. CPI sources also claimed that, most of the Congress votes in Aska Parliamentary constituency have gone in favor of BJP which is quite surprising. In spite of all odds, the CPI nominee Ramakrushna Panda could secure only 59,978 votes. According to election norms, if a candidate fails to secure more than 6% of the total polling (except NOTA) shall have to lose deposit and CPI nominee Panda has become a victim to this.
Notably, Aska Parliamentary constituency once upon a time was the citadel of CPI from which the vibrant CPI leader late Dutikrushna Panda got elected from the same constituency as MP and MLA twice. Similarly, late Harihara Das also got elected from the same constituency several times. Some local political astrologers blamed that Congress has betrayed the CPI in the recently concluded election for which both the CPI candidates lost their deposits.
Similarly, the CPI nominee for Chhatrapur Assembly constituency Pradeep Sethy could get only 12,766 votes and lost deposit too. Like Aska, once upon a time Chatrapur Assembly constituency was the stronghold of CPI which elected late Lakshman Mahapatra thrice between 1961 and 1971. Similarly, popular CPI leader late Biswanath Sahu got elected from the same constituency twice in 1977 and 1980; followed by CPI leader late Parsuram Panda who got elected in 1990. CPI leader Narayan Reddy got elected from the same constituency in 2004 and Adikanda Sethi of CPI in 2009. However, from 2000 to 2004, vibrant Ganjam leader and noted social worker and farmer leader Rama Chandra Panda made an unprecedented win by defeating his traditional CPI nominee and captured Chhatrapur seat for his manifold pro-public work and became Deputy Speaker of the OLA.
In the past, Chhatrapur was represented by the CPI eight times. But in 2014, though CPI nominee Krushna Chandra Nayak was defeated, he secured an impressive 31,202 votes reflecting the strong presence of the CPI in the area. Significantly, in 2019 election, CPI nominee Pradeep Sethi got 20,000 less votes as the Congress deliberately did not follow the “alliance dharma”, said CPI sources.