Acknowledging the “arrogance and “bossism” of the Left parties’ cadres, CPI general secretary A B Bardhan spoke to Vandita Mishra on the reasons for the Left rout in the Lok Sabha polls, and the way forward. He also discussed the situation in Lalgarh today and recalled the time when he first sensed that BSP chief Mayawati would not be in a position to be a post-poll ally for the Left in its efforts to cobble together a Third Front government. Excerpts from the interview:

In its review of its Lok Sabha performance, the CPM has said that the Indo-US nuclear deal, on which the Left pulled out support from the UPA government last July, was an issue ‘difficult to explain to the people’. What is the CPI’s assessment?

We had our doubts. We told the CPM then that this is an issue. The nuclear deal involves so many technicalities that it is difficult to explain purely on the basis of anti-imperialism. We didn’t think this could become an issue for the elections. Our point of view was that there were a number of problems affecting the livelihood of the people — farmers’ issues, price rise, non-availability of food. Those were issues that could be explained to the people. The nuclear deal wasn’t.

We agreed (with the pullout decision) after discussion. But in the preamble of the letter we gave for the pullout, we mentioned the economic issues. The nuclear deal, we said, had made it impossible to go along with the government.

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