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Apart from the humiliating defeat Indian National Congress (INC) had, another question now raises is the credibility of Left politics in India. The Left parties, CPI and CPI(M) now confine to just 10, with CPI tally is just one seat.

CPI (M) has saved its face in Kerala and Thripura with 5 and 2 wins respectively, but in West Bengal where it ruled consistently for 25 years, they got just two seats.

See the fall of Left politics in India In 2004, when UPA had formed its first government at the national level Left parties were on the driving seat with 67 members in the parliament. CPI (M) leaders like Prakash Karat and Sitaram Yechuri and CPI leader A.B. Bardhan were the king pins in UPA-1 regime, but this election brings in a big question over the Left stream of politics in the country.

Both the Communist parties now face the threat of loosing the status of National party for the first time in the history of Communist movement in India. The Left politics is gradually loosing its sheen after the demise of leaders like EMS Namboothiripad, Harkishen Singh Surjit and Jyothi Basu.

This is the case of CPI, after leaders like C.Rajeshwar Rao and Indrajith Guptha. The main handicap the Left parties now facing is that their national level leaders are not having vibrant relation with the people. Of course, they are more intellectual and academically qualified than their predecessors, but not having the experiences of peoples struggle in various parts of the country.

Just like a CPI(M) worker said, most of their present leaders are arm chair communists having no relations with the people. They are more mechanic and do not truly analyse the mindset of the people. Most of the struggles in recent times are more or less mechanic, having no political enthusiasm and political credibility. The secretariat blockade in Kerala is a classic example.

In this election, CPI (M) had a big failure in its strategy in Kerala which caused a humiliating defeat to M.A. Baby, a polit beaurue member at Kollam constituency. RSP, an alley in the Left Front had demanded Kollam seat for N.K. Premachandran, a vibrant leader and former minister for Water resources.

CPI(M) categorically rejected it and unilaterally announced M.A Baby as candidate for the seat. The provoked RSP had dissected all its long standing relation with the Left front and joined United Democratic Front (UDF). As a UDF candidate, Premachandran defeated Baby by a margin of roughly 33,000 votes. This is a heavy blow to the CPI(M) leadership as they never expected such a defeat at Kollam.

Just like this, in 2009 elections, Janata Dal also departed from the LDF, yet the CPI(M) leadership had not studied any lesson. It was the absence of a faction of the Janatha Dal that caused the narrow defeat in the assembly elections in 2012. The party also has no confidence to field candidates from the party rank and file, but search for independents, who have no affinity to politics and having lower credibility as a political leader.

The party lost Ernakulam constituency in this way. CPI also fielded, a doctor at Thiruvananthapuram who stands on the third spot after BJP. There were allegations that his candidature was on payment basis. Whatever may be the truth he had no credibility at all and failed to grab peoples mandate. This is the only seat in Kerala where LDF had a disappointing performance.

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Arm chair communism does not yield result