Left parties meet to discuss poll debacle

The four Left parties, which received a drubbing in the Lok Sabha polls, met here on Sunday to analyse the results and their future course of action.

The meeting at the CPI(M) headquarters was attended by CPI(M)'s Prakash Karat and Sitaram Yechury, CPI's AB Bardhan and D Raja, RSP's TJ Chandrachoodan and Forward Bloc's Debabrata Biswas and D Deverajan.

The Left tally was drastically reduced to 24 from the 2004 figure of 61 as it suffered huge setbacks in West Bengal and Kerala.

"We are discussing the reasons of the debacle. We will go through the reasons why we lost. All the parties will also individually need to discuss the issue," Chandrachoodan told reporters before the meeting.

Asked whether aligning with parties like BSP, TDP and JD(S) was a tactical blunder, he said, "I do not think so. Our political line was right."

On whether the Third Front has become irrelevant, he said, "Temporarily it has. But with one defeat, you cannot write it off completely."

He also said meeting of the Third Front allies is unlikely to take place on Monday.

The top leaders of the four parties, which had supported the UPA government for four and a half years, would deliberate on the reasons for the debacle, particularly in their bastions of West Bengal and Kerala where Congress and Trinamool Congress made significant inroads.

Karat had on Saturrday said that the Left and its allies will will function as an Opposition.

Admitting that the CPI-M and Left parties have suffered a major setback, he said it necessitated a "serious examination" of the reasons for the party's poor performance.

The CPI(M) Politburo will meet on Monday to analyse one of the worst ever defeats of the Left in recent times.