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The top brass of the Communist Party of India-Marxist in New Delhi were in high spirits as the party headed towards a two-thirds majority in West Bengal after trouncing the Trinamul Congress and Congress combine.
"Even before we went to polls, I had told my colleagues in Delhi that the CPI-M would get a two-thirds majority. My prediction was that we would get 204 seats. We have already crossed the 190 mark and we might just fall short of the 204 target," CPI-M's senior leader Sitaram Yechuri told rediff.com .
He complimented the people of West Bengal for returning the party to power for a record sixth term.
"I would not say it was the efforts of one particular leader. It is the people of Bengal who should be given credit for this spectacular victory," he said.
Asked why the party fared so badly in Kerala, Yechuri said that in Kerala there is a tradition that the party in power, except in one or two cases, losing. "We did not expect to do that badly. But then Kerala is known for voting for change. We had a series of problems. The prices of cash crops, which Kerala farmers grow, fell sharply. There were many other factors which worked against us," he explained.
When asked if the Vajpayee government should go, he said, "The Vajpayee government should have gone a long time back. But they are thick-skinned. They want to remain in power. After the polls there will be a realignment of political forces."
On whether the CPI-M and the Congress should join hands, he said, "The assembly polls were fought on different issues. But as far as central politics is concerned, everything depends upon the attitude of the Congress. These elections were historic in the sense that the Congress and Trinamul Congress joined hands to throw out the CPI-M. But we have given them a fitting reply."
He said it was too early to say if Buddhadev Bhattacharya had emerged from the shadow of Jyoti Basu. "Basu will continue to remain a towering figure in the West Bengal politics. Yes, the present chief minister has lead the party from the front and brought the party back to power. Of course, there were times when he was in and out of the party but he has been a stalwart in his own right," he said.
When asked about the pollsters' prediction of a close contest, he said, "My calculation was a bit different. We knew that we were in a win win situation. Because if the Congress and Trinamul went ahead with the Mahajot then the division of votes between Trinamul and BJP would benefit us. If the Trinamul were to go with BJP then division of votes between Congress and Trinamul would help us. And in an unlikely scenario of the Congress, the BJP and the Trinamul joining hands, the minority votes would automatically shift to the CPI-M. So there was no question of any combine giving us run for our money," he explained.
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