Having said that, India cannot be a bipolar polity, with just the BJP or Congress. Beyond politics, certain social classes, certain social forces can never be represented by Congress or BJP. In such a situation, the Left has a definite role to represent these classes. India can never become a two-party system even though Congress and BJP would like to see such a system to emerge.

I think regional parties are a reality and have a role to play. But Congress and BJP have a peculiar approach to regional parties: if regional parties align with them, they are okay. If regional parties align with the Left, or regional parties try to pursue an independent course, then regional parties are dubbed as negative forces.

•D.K. Singh: After the elections, hasn’t your party become a regional party too?

The CPI is down to four seats in the Lok Sabha but it is a national party. The CPI’s strength, or the strength of the Left, is not reflected in the number of seats we have won. We have a national presence. But in a coalition era, we don’t get to fight all the seats. For instance, the CPI and the CPI-M together are a force to be reckoned with in Tamil Nadu politics but in coalition politics, we don’t get to fight many seats—we fought only six seats; three each. If we had fought on our own, we would have won more. So the electoral success of the Left is one thing, the actual mass-base is another. There is a disconnect between the two.

... contd.