Left in the lurch

16 May 2009

With no role left in forming the government at the centre, the Left, which once used to dictate terms to the Manmohan Singh-led UPA government as an alliance supporter, is now reconciled to sitting in the opposition.

CPI (M) leader Prakash Karat today accepted defeat and said his party would now sit in the opposition. "We will sit in the opposition," said Karat.

"No denial that the Congress has won. We will continue to sit in the opposition, as we always have," Communist Party of India (CPI) general secretary AB Bardhan said while conceding defeat.

The Left parties fared badly in its stronghold in West Bengal and Kerala, conceding seats to Congress party-led coalition government for four years before falling out over a nuclear deal with the United States.

Karat also acknowledged that the election result was a rejection of the Left's ideological stance and that it was a "major setback" for the Left.

Clearly, people had voted "on the basis of the platform put forward" by the Congress and its allies, he said.