Q: After withdrawing support from UPA govt, you have lost ground in your strongholds. Your tally has gone down drastically in parliament. You lost West Bengal and Kerala assembly elections. So do you think withdrawing support from UPA was perhaps a mistake on your part?
Brinda Karat: Not in the least. In fact, I don't think withdrawal of support to the UPA govt because of its blatantly pro-American policy had anything to do with our electoral setbacks in West Bengal and Kerala.
As you know, prior to the Lok Sabha elections and prior to the withdrawal of support from UPA, there was a series of elections like panchayat elections that made it clear that there was serious erosion in our support base. There were mainly state level factors although, of course, national level factors also play a very important role.
But I don't think withdrawal of support was the trigger for what happened although the national situation developing at that time did give the UPA an advantage.
Q: So Why has the CPI(M)'s stake gone down in West Bengal and Kerala?
Brinda Karat: I think You are talking about the past. This was four years ago. Certainly in Kerala, we expect a good turnaround. Our party has been taking up many important issues in Kerala and there is a very small gap between LDF and UDF and we have certainly covered that gap and we'll be doing very well in the Lok Sabha elections.
In West Bengal also, considering different aspects of why we lost west Bengal, one of them being the across the board opportunistic alliance of all political forces in West Bengal with one point programme of defeating the CPI(M),from the Maoist to the BJP under the leadership of TMC. This was an unprecedented situation that any government had to face. And the fact that the left still got 42 percent of the vote, in spite of all opposition unity against CPI(M), shows that our mass base is still very much there.
There have, of course, been a setback in certain areas and I think the efforts of the party to explain our position to the people, to rebuild and re-forge our relations with the people, in which the links have been broken in some areas, I think we are on the road to recovery in West Bengal.
