Bihar: Red Flag Flies High, CPI(ML) Wins 2 Seats After 35 Years

Patna: The “red flags” of the Left parties, key allies of Bihar's Mahagathbandhan, a part of the Opposition’s Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), defeated saffron flags of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance in two of 40 Lok Sabha seats. This is a big win for the Left in the state after the 2020 Bihar Assembly polls.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation or CPI(ML), locally known as Bhakpa-Maley, a part of the Left parties, broke nearly a 35-year-old jinx by winning Arrah and Karakat Lok Sabha seats. This time, the red flags along with the green flags of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and tricolour flags of Congress worked hard together and wrested these two crucial seats.

It was not an easy battle as ruling NDA had used everything, including heavy resources, a high-flying election campaign and Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself addressing election rallies in both these parliamentary constituency

The CPI(ML) candidates Sudama Prasad and Raja Ram Singh won Arrah and Karakat seats.

Prasad, a party MLA from Tarari Assembly seat in Bhojpur district, defeated BJP’s incumbent MP and Union minister R K Singh, and Raja Ram Singh, former party MLA, defeated popular Bhojpuri film star Pawan Singh and a former Union minister Upendra Kushwaha, chief of Rashtriya Loktantrik Morcha, a BJP’s ally.

Prasad has emerged as a big fighter as he stopped R K Singh from making a hattrick this time. In Arrah, considered a CPI(ML) stronghold since the 1980s, the fight was bipolar and has minimised the chances of a split in either pro-NDA or anti-NDA votes.

Arrah is a hub of lucrative illegal sand mining in river Sone. RK Singh, a former IAS officer-turned- politician, who belongs to Rajput caste, is known for engineering a calculated caste equation of other upper castes, non-Yadav OBCs and Dalits in the past two elections. He has reportedly also taken the help of criminal-turned-politicians belonging to the powerful Bhumihar upper caste, to back him.

A former Union home secretary, Singh had created a controversy by his statement in which he allegedly linked Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh with terror. Also, it was he who, as district magistrate in 1990, arrested L K Advani, who was leading the Ram Janmabhoomi Rath Yatra into Bihar, ordered by then Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav.

This time, Singh was heavily banking on caste equations and the ‘Modi factor’ to win, but in vain.

However, the CPI(ML) candidate, was supported by a combination of strong social support base and anti- incumbency against Singh also played its part in his victory.

In Karakat, the entry of BJP’s rebel Pawan Singh, a Bhojpuri singer, as an independent candidate damaged Upendra Kushwaha, who was pushed to the third position. After Pawan Singh refused to withdraw from the fray against Kushwaha, BJP last week expelled him for contesting against the NDA candidate.

During the campaign, Pawan Singh attracted youths in the largely rural constituency for his glamour and his popular Bhojpuri songs. Some popular Bhojpuri film
stars, including Khesari Lal Yadav, also campaigned for him. Pawan Singh made it a triangular contest in Karakat, on both sides of the river Sone, known as the rice bowl of Bihar.

Singh, who belongs to the powerful upper caste Rajput, made a dent into the traditional upper caste support base of NDA. In March 2024, Pawan Singh refused to
contest from Asansol Lok Sabha seat in West Bengal after BJP named him as the party nominee against Trinamool Congress incumbent MP Shatrughan Sinha, a Bollywood star, popularly known as ‘Bihari Babu’.

A young CPI(ML) leader and first time MLA Sandeep Saurav contested unsuccessfully from Nalanda parliamentary constituency, which is the home district of Janata Dal-United president and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. JD-U has been winning this seat since the late 1990s.

It was in the 1989 Lok Sabha polls, when the CPI(ML), the political face of the Indian People’s Front (IPF), won from the Arrah Lok Sabha seat. It took over three decades for the party to repeat success in the Lok Sabha elections.

For the Left parties, this latest win was much needed as it broke the nearly 25-year-old jinx that they had been facing in winning Lok Sabha polls in Bihar. Last time, in the 1999 Lok Sabha polls, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) candidate Subodh Rai won from the Bhagalpur seat, the last Left party candidate to have been in the Lok Sabha from Bihar. After that, the Left parties contested unsuccessfully in the 2004, 2009, 2014 and 2019 polls.

In April 2024 when workers of Communist Party the CPI(ML) started door-to-door visits, seeking support and a donation of Rs 20 from each household during the election campaign for Lok Sabha polls, it went unnoticed amid the high-flying election campaign of NDA. But this campaign of CPI(ML) proved successful if the poll outcome in Arrah and Karakat is anything to go by.

In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the Left parties, including CPI(ML), CPI(M) and Communist Party of India (CPI), jointly contested five of 40 seats in Bihar after the Mahagathbandhan finalised its seat sharing formula in March. This was in contrast to the 2019 and 2014 elections.

The CPI(ML) is recognised as a potent political force with 11 MLAs in the Assembly and a significant support base across various districts, especially in rural areas. The party had demanded five seats. CPI(M), with two MLAs, had requested four seats, and CPI, with two MLAs, sought three seats.

The CPI(ML) contested from three seats of Arrah, Karakat and Nalanda, the CPI(M) contested from Khagaria and CPI contested from Begusarai, the party’s traditional stronghold. The Left parties were defeated in Nalanda, Begusarai and Khagaria seats but gave a tough fight to NDA.

The CPI candidate from Begusarai, Awadhesh Rai, a former party MLA, challenged vocal Hindutva champion and Union Minister Giriraj Singh,a senior BJP leader. In the previous polls, CPI had fielded Kanhaiya Kumar, former Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union
president, who is now a vocal Congress leader. Kumar unsuccessfully contested from Begusarai.

In the 2020 Assembly polls, the Left parties won 16 seats, including 12 by CPI(ML) and two each by CPI(M) and CPI.

Left party leaders argue that traditionally, the Left had a sizable presence in Bihar, with the CPI as a dominant political force. Even now, the Left has certain pockets of strongholds and social support bases that are quite visible during protests and rallies.

Political watchers here said that Left parties collectively have a strong support base in at least a dozen Lok Sabha seats, where they can influence the poll outcome. They also pointed out the significance of Left parties in shaping the balance in favour of or against any candidate in some seats.