The present Samajvadi Party has gone far away from even the
‘Lohia socialism’ of yesteryears. As proved in its earlier stint, it is one of
the most ardent supporters of the imperialist globalization/ neo-liberal
policies. It had ordered the first police firing in the country for enforcing
the privatization of a cement factory, killing ten workers. The ruling class
and the corporate/ MNC lobby have seen that the regional parties like DMK and
AIADMK in Tamilnadu, TDP in AP, BJD in Odisha, TMC in Bengal, JD(U) in Bihar,
Akali Dal in Punjab, Shivsena in Maharashtra and BSP and SP in UP are more
‘efficient’ sometimes in pursuing the neo-liberal policies and opening the
country to neo-colonization, and so have started supporting them
enthusiastically. In UP, as BSP got discredited they soon shifted their
preference to SP providing all support which also played an important role in
its victory along with other factors like caste and communal equations. This
trend may influence even the all India political scene in coming days. So the
victory of SP is essentially a victory of the corporate/ MNC lobby, which
changes its preference according to conditions in each state to advance its
interests. The corporate/ MNC lobby is so happy that whoever wins among the
different ruling/ regional parties or alliances, all of them basically follow
the neo-liberal policies very loyally.
It is in this situation the performance of the ‘left’
parties of various hues in UP elections should be seen. As SP rejected to
accommodate them, the CPI(M) led Left Front parties fielded about 120
candidates. Though CPI(ML) Liberation started talks for joining it, due to
differences on seat allocation, it declared its own 42 candidates. All these
parties focused only on the number of seats to be contested, but their
manifestos did not categorically reject the neo-liberal policies or put forward
any alternative to the ruling class/ regional parties. So CPI and CPI(M) which
had good representation in the vidhan sabha till recently were wiped out and
their voting percentage also went down drastically. CPI which contested 55
seats could get only 99,000 votes, a far cry from the period when it had more
than 10 MLAs. Out of this, they got 41,000 votes from Chitrakut seat alone,
getting average 1000 votes each from other seats. CPI(M) contested 18 seats and
could get only 54,000 votes, a steep downfall from its past gains. Out of this,
it received 36,000 votes from Kuraha seat in Allahabad district alone, thus
getting only 1000 votes each from other seats. The performance of Forward Bloc
and RSP which contested nearly 20 seats each is not worth mentioning. Liberation
which ultimately fielded 34 candidates could get only 33, 374 votes. The
maximum they got was 5637 votes in one seat. Compared to 2007 elections, their
vote share went down sharply. Akhilendra Pratap Singh, who was Liberation’s
state secretary in 2007 and who left it and formed Jan Sangharsh Morcha (JSM),
fielded 27 candidates and got only 19200 votes. Though all of these are
projected as ‘left’ forces by their followers and corporate media, none of them
had put forward a manifesto basically different from that of the ruling class/
regional parties and in effect had reduced themselves to pseudo left forces.
Contrary to this, the CPI(ML) had fielded ten candidates and
supported five based on an election manifesto which projected a revolutionary
alternative before the people. It had started its functioning in an organized
manner only recently. It collected the fund from the local people and organized
campaign propagating its line through its Election Manifesto, handbills and a
CD explaining Party line on elections. In spite of all these technical and
financial problems and limitations, an effective campaign for a revolutionary
alternative could be organized through the active participation of all party
and class/ mass organization members and the 15 candidates together obtained
33,541 votes (average 2250 votes per candidate), with com. Mukesh from Bahreich
(Barabanki dt) getting 6066 votes. It shows that if the revolutionary left can wage
a political campaign utilizing the available strength of the organization based
on a revolutionary manifesto, uncompromisingly fighting the ruling class
agenda, it can win the support of ever larger number of toiling people and in
the future develop in to a determining force. The election campaign and the
votes received by the Part/ Party supported candidates are indications of the
emergence of the revolutionary left in the state putting forward an alternative
before the people.
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