The CPI has called for “humility” and abandoning “arrogance” in the wake of one of the worst electoral defeats in its history, which has seen its Lok Sabha tally crash to four from 10, and which might cost it the status of a national party.

The CPI National Executive which met on Friday to review the election “emphasized the need for humility and total absence of arrogance in the behaviour and attitude of all Left leaders and activists in relation to people”, a press statement issued after the meeting said.

Several National Executive members who declined to be quoted criticised party general secretary A B Bardhan for blindly toeing the line taken by the CPI(M) and its general secretary Prakash Karat before the elections.

They said the CPI “leadership” (read Bardhan) played into the hands of the CPM on the question of the Third Front, and failed to assert itself in Kerala and West Bengal where the big brother “dictated” terms.

The Third Front, the CPI said, was not seen by voters “as (a) viable, stable and realistic alternative”.

CPI leaders from Kerala said the LDF’s electoral adjustments with the PDP, forged mainly at the instance of CPM state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan, played a major role in the rout as it alienated both secular and Hindu voters and the moderates within the Muslim community. The CPI drew a blank in Kerala.

The leaders said the CPI central leadership should have taken up the Kerala unit’s opposition to the PDP alliance with their CPM counterparts in Delhi.

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