Left in lurch after possibility of friendly fight among constituents

Patna,(BiharTimes): After the six-party third front it is the Left Front, which is facing the challenge of ‘friendly fight’ in Bihar.

Though CPI ML general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya said that there are 10-12 seats on which the Left parties have not arrived at a consensus and have put up their candidates sources said that the number of constituencies where friend fight is likely may be as high as two dozens.

According to Bhattacharya one such seat was Bahadurpur in Darbhanga district where the CPI(M) has put up its own nominee against the CPI-ML candidate. He, however, said that seats with strong CPI-ML presence, in districts like Bhojpur, Patna, Arwal, Aurangabad, Rohtas, Kaimur, Siwan, Katihar and Patna, are not facing such situation.

On the other hand the state secretary of CPI Satya Narayan Singh accused CPI-ML of not following the criteria under which seats were distributed. It is not even considering the percentage of votes polled by other Left parties in the last election. The CPI-ML just wants to expand its base in the state without aiming to secure victory, he added.

Hasanpur (Samastipur), Sarai Ranjan (Samastipur), Tarapur (Munger) and Kahalgaon (Bhagalpur), which go to poll on Oct 12, have candidates from more than one Left party, so is the case with Dehri, where polling is scheduled on October 16.

Apart from the CPI, CPI(M), CPI-ML, the other three constituents are Socialist Unity Centre of India, All India Forward Bloc and Revolutionary Socialist Party.

The CPI has staked claim on 101 seats, CPI-ML on 97, CPM 40, SUCI 10, AIFB six and RSP five. The total comes to 259 when the strength of Bihar Assembly is 243.

In 2010 only CPI won one seat.