Left outfits face poll loss heat

The Left’s near-total loss in the Lok Sabha election is having a ripple effect on affiliated organisations. Sahmat, a Left-leaning outfit involved in activism, has had to vacate. Set up after the murder of Safdar Hashmi in 1989, the organisation had been occupying 8, Vithalbhai Patel House, for 20 years, as one or the other MP from the CPM would be allotted the premises. Sahmat’s last host was Kerala’s CS Sujata. But she did not contest this year and the party had to part with the flat.

“We had to move out because no. 8 has not been allotted to a Left MP and the allottee wanted to move in,” member Rajan Prasad said. Sahmat has been now accommodated at 29, Ferozeshah Road, the residence of Sitaram Yechury. The new office started functioning on July 6, but old-timers still miss the easy access to “number 8”.

However, everybody’s not been as lucky. Many full-time and part-time CPM workers are struggling. The CPM has told all those who cannot afford housing and for whom arrangements could not be made, to return home. The staff of the party’s Malayalam mouthpiece Deshabhimani will either move to Kerala or found place in distant Rohini (North-West Delhi). The paper will soon be uprooted from its Vithalbhai Patel House office.