Karat takes personal responsibility for CPI-M's poll debacle

CPI-M general secretary Prakash Karat today took personal responsibility, along with 86 members of the Central Committee, for the setback suffered by the party in the Lok Sabha polls.

"I, as the general secretary, have taken the responsibility for implementing the decisions of the Central Committee (CC). To that extent, I am also responsible along with the CC," Karat told a press conference here.

He was asked whether he would take personal responsibility for the "unrealistic" position the party took in calling for the non-Congress, non-BJP alternative to form government at the Centre in the absence of a countrywide alliance.

The CC, after a two-day meeting here, felt that though formation of such an alternative was a correct stand, but this electoral understanding could not be extended beyond some states. "It failed to be a viable and credible alternative."

"In the absence of a countrywide alliance and no common policy platform being presented, the call for an alternative government was unrealistic," the party said in a statement.

The CC noted that there was "some erosion of support" among the rural and urban poor, as well as the middle class, in Bengal. There were shortcomings in the functioning of the administration in Bengal and Kerala and "certain wrong trends" within party organisation which affected its performance in its bastions.