Equating the social welfare schemes introduced by the West Bengal government such as the ‘Lakshmir Bhandar’, the monthly cash assistance scheme for women in the state, with ‘charity’ by a section of the CPI-M leaders seems to have backfired for the party in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections.
A preliminary review of the reasons behind CPI-M’s electoral disaster was held at the party’s state secretariat on Saturday.
Out of the 23 candidates fielded by the CPI-M-led Left Front in Bengal, 21 lost their deposits while the remaining two — state secretary Md Salim and the party’s central committee member Sujan Chakraborty — finished distant second and third in their respective seats, Murshidabad and Dum Dum.
Sources in the CPI-M’s state committee said that from the results of the Lok Sabha polls, it is clear that the Trinamool Congress’ emphatic victory in 29 out of the 42 constituencies in the state was largely facilitated by women voting in large numbers for the ruling party.
“A direct transfer benefit like the Lakshmir Bhandar undoubtedly played a big role in the massive support of women received by the ruling party. A section of the CPI-M leadership ridiculing such schemes was not in good taste and hence they got largely rejected by the women voters,” said a state committee member of the party, who did not wish to be named.
CPI-M’s alliance with the Congress for the Lok Sabha elections is also under the scanner after the party drew a blank for the second time in a row after 2019.
“We had an alliance with the Congress for the Assembly polls both in 2016 and 2021. While our dedicated voters voted in large numbers for the Congress candidates on both occasions, the same reciprocation was not seen in the Congress voters. I think the same thing was repeated this time as well,” the state committee member said.
