The eclipse of Communism in Bihar
Like the famed Madhubani painting losing its lustre
over years, the Left bastion here, too, is finding its colour fading away.
Traditionally a Communist stronghold, Bihar's Madhubani sprung a surprise
at the hustings this time: Communist Party
of India stalwart and Union
Agriculture Minister
Chaturanan Mishra was relegated to a poor
third position behind
the Rashtriya Janata Dal-backed Congress and the Bharatiya Janata
Party. In the battle, it was Congress candidate Shakil Ahmed
who emerged victorious -- he defeated BJP nominee Hukum
Deo Yadav by a margin of more than 16,000 votes.
The Leftists, the polls prove, is a spent force in the state. For, the CPI's debacle is
limited not only to the Madhubani region, but
extends throughout Bihar.
Besides the Communist Party of India-Marxist and
the Communist Party of India-Marxist-Leninist, both of which had been going
through a lean phase, the CPI, which had won four seats --
Jehanabad, Begusarai, Madhubani and Ballia -- in the 1996 election,
licked the dust in all the four constituencies, either at the hands of
the ruling RJD or the Congress.
Right from the beginning, Mishra had been hamstrung by a
plethora of problems. With the RJD extending no support to the
CPI, it was undoubtedly an acid test for Mishra. To make matters worse, his
own cadres threw the gauntlet at him as they were unhappy about his replacing
Bhogendra Jha, the 'messiah' of the peasants since 1940, with another candidate.
There is no escaping the fact that the split in the unified
Janata Dal and the CPI's brushing aside the
newly-formed RJD of Laloo Prasad Yadav had
bungled the electoral calculations of the Left. In 1996, the CPI fielded
seven candidates in the state, but only four managed to win. Mishra defeated BJP's
Hukumdeo Narayan Yadav in Madhubani while Shatrughan
Prasad Singh chalked up victory defeating BJP nominee R L Singh from
Ballia constituency. And Ramashryay Singh got the better of
the Congress's Jagdish Sharma from Jehanabad.
The 1991 election was the most successful for the CPI as
it won all the eight seats -- Madhubani, Balia, Jehanabad, Motihari,
Buxar, Nalanda, Hazaribagh and Munger -- it contested, garnering 7.55 per cent of
votes.
In 1996, the CPI-M, which did not have a very impressive track
record in the state, drew a blank after fielding three
candidates. Even the Newada reserved seat
which it had retained in 1991 went to the BJP. Its only consolation was that its candidates at Newada and Purnea were close runners up.
The CPI lost at Motihari, Buxar, Hazaribagh, Nalanda
and Munger to the Samata Party during the last
election. It got 7.56 per cent of votes.
During the 1989 election, the CPI and CPI-M had an electoral
alliance with the Janata Dal and other Left parties against the
Congress. The CPI contested 12 seats, while the CPI-M fielded two
candidates. Both parties had supported the Marxist Coordination
Committee in Dhanbad.
The CPI won seats in Balia, Madhubani, Buxar and Jehanabad that time, while its candidate finished second at Bettiah,
Motihari, Nalanda, Gaya and Hazaribagh. The party got 7.93 per
cent votes.
The CPI-M, for its part, could only win the Newada seat in 1989.
UNI
Elections '98
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