Will Left Front plough a lone furrow in Bihar?

The "secular alliance", spearheaded by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad, announced its seat-sharing formula last week but not before imploring the Left Front, comprising six Left parties, to be part of the alliance. The Left, consistent with its decision to rebuild its strength rather than align with other parties in the electoral arena, spurned the advance.

The Left parties, the erosion in their support base elsewhere in the country in recent years notwithstanding, continue to have pockets of influence in at least 50 to 75 of Assembly constituencies, including the Maoist-affected areas. These parties will contest all 243 seats. The Left Front comprises the Communist Party of India (CPI), Communist Party of India (Marxist Leninist) Liberation, Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPI(M), Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI), Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) and the Forward Bloc. (RECEDING BOUNDARIES)

The Left parties fared poorly in the 2010 Bihar Assembly polls, which was an election marked by the Nitish Kumar wave. But the three major Left parties bagged more than 10 per cent votes in as many as 31 seats. These parties received between 5 per cent and 10 per cent in another 26 seats. The results in the 2005 polls were much better for these parties.

The Left Front plans to hold a convention to highlight the "anti-poor" and "anti-farmer" steps taken by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government on September 7 in Patna. The Left Front is also likely to announce its seat-sharing adjustment next week. The Left leadership hasn't ruled out talking to the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) after the latter walkout out of the secular alliance when it was allotted only three seats as part of the seat-sharing formula.

The constituents of the secular alliance are the Janata Dal (United), RJD and the Congress. Nitish Kumar-led JD(U) and RJD will contest 100 seats each, while Congress getting 40 seats to contest. The NCP wants to contest at least 12 seats.

Now, Left-leaning activist groups in Bihar are working with some of the political parties on either side to somehow forge an understanding between the Left Front and the secular alliance at least at the ground level. This, these groups hope, will prevent a split in "anti-BJP" votes in what is expected to a closely contested election.

The BJP hopes to replicate its success of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. It had then, along with its allies Ram Vilas Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) and Upendra Kushwaha's Rashtriya Loktantrik Samata Party, won 31 of the 40 seats. The alliance now looks more formidable with former Bihar CM and mahadalit leader Jitan Ram Manjhi joining it.