The Left cadre and ranks are naturally disappointed and unhappy. Though victory and defeat are normal in ant elections, the loss of vote share in big way has shaken not only the entire party but even our supporters and sympathisers. It is matter of serious concern that the erosion of the traditional Left vote is very high in West Bengal and a big chunk of it has gone to the BJP. It is very alarming. Left vote got reduced from 25 per cent to seven per cent in Bengal. In Kerala while the UDF got 39 per cent, the LDF got 27 per cent which too is a big gap. The most disturbing aspect is the fact that we are losing representation in state after state except in Kerala and Bengal. In total the CPI could get 35,76184 votes which is down from 42,00,000 votes of 2014.

The National Executive also warned that the marginalization of the Left will have very negative consequences in the country. It is true that the Left mass organisations have big membership with broad appeal and have regular activities. The party and mass organisations are active and are organizing many agitations and struggles mobilizing millions. But they are not politicalised enough and their votes are not automatically getting transferred to Left candidates. The political situation is adverse with the Left movement shrinking. This will weaken the voice of the working class, farmers and the downtrodden in Parliament.

The recruitment of younger generation into the leadership and ranks of the party needs special attention. We have to make a serious attempt to reorganize the party with new and younger faces along with massive and militant activities. There is criticism of the leadership for its failure to revitalise the party. Accepting the justified criticism, the meeting decided to review thoroughly what went wrong with the party. It also decided to convene a meeting of the party’s national council on July 19, 20 and 21, 2019 in New Delhi and directed all the state councils to have detailed review meetings.

It was also pointed at the meeting that there were discrepancies in large number of constituencies in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Bihar in the votes polled in EVMs and votes counted indicating addition of thousands of ‘Phantom’ votes. This has happened in Begusarai constituency also. The difference of votes is more than the margin of victory in one constituency. The meeting wanted the Election Commission to explain how such a discrepancy has taken place. Three former Election Commissioners asked ECI to reply to this mishap. Certainly this makes EVMs controversial.

Our Party contested 49 seats all over the country except Delhi, Puducherry, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Meghalaya , Uttarakhand and Andaman and Nicobar Islands though our Party units exist there. There was a technical error in our candidate’s nomination in Meghalaya and has to withdraw the nomination. Delhi, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand expressed inability to contest the elections. They should have contested the elections for political propaganda of the party. Fighting the elections is also a political campaign.

We have been for the last one year or more appealing to all secular, democratic forces and parties to unite, to defeat BJP. Though many parties also expressed that desire, in practice they miserably failed due to narrow petty interests of leaders and groups. Even broad understanding among secular and Left parties, did not succeed in many states. In the background of defeat of BJP in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh in assembly elections and bye-elections to Parliament, the failure to unite is a big disappointment. There was confusion as there was no uniform method of understanding among the secular parties except in Taamil Nadu which yielded good result. There was an understanding among the CPI, CPI (M) and CPI (ML) in general except in Assam and Punjab. Except in one seat in Assam, there was no contest among the left parties. We congratulate Tamil Nadu state council and our two MPs Subbarayan and Selvaraj.

The meeting pointed out that Rahul Gandhi’s decision to contest from Wayanad against CPI candidate is a big political mistake. It has sent a wrong signal. Left is for secular democratic unity to fight against the Modi led NDA front. Secular people were confused and did not appreciate Rahul’s contest against Left. All these went in favour of the BJP, which was facing anti-incumbency coupled with unpopularity due to its failure in implementing its promises on employment, prices and failure in bringing black money. The BJP suddenly got advantage with Pulwama attack on Indian soldiers by terrorists. The surgical strike on terror camps in Pakistan not only saved BJP government from its failure at Pulwama but also helped to raise pseudo-nationalism. This helped them in Northern states, East and Western States in a big way.

As the Narendra Modi led NDA government starts second term with a sense of arrogance over its improved mandate, the worst sufferer will be our economy which is already in doldrums. The stark realities that will lead to an economic turbulence in the coming days will be growing unemployment, dwindling investments, falling purchasing power of consumer, deepening agri crisis, growing NPAs, etc. If one goes by the experience of the last five years of RSS-BJP controlled Modi regime, all attempts will be made to push the economy further rightward. One need not expect any propeople reforms from the government which should be evident in the full budget that will be presented soon. There is every reason to believe that they will try to overthrow democratic governments in the states and attack the Constitution.

Economic growth slipped to a five-quarter low of 6.6 per cent in October-December 2018. In 2018-19 GDP growth slipped to 5-year low of 7 per cent, from 7.2 per cent in 2017-18. The growth was 8.2 per cent in 2015-16 and 2016-17, 7.4 per cent in 2014-15, and 6.4 per cent in 2013- 14.

Doubling the income of farmers by 2022 — Modi’s stated goal — looks elusive. The micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) sector has still not recovered fully from demonetisation and implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST). Also we are nowhere close to thedouble digit growth thata country of this size andpopulation needs. For the 2018-19 financial year as a whole, IIP growth stood at 3.6 per cent, much lower than 4.4 per cent recorded in previous financial year.

The Left has to unite and build a resistance movement. Defeat in elections is not losing everything. The struggles outside Parliament have to become massive and militant. The left, secular, democratic forces should come together to carry on the fight. March forward!(IPA Service)