LS polls: Left parties set to increase number of seats, no significant rise in vote share

New Delhi: Embroiled in an existential battle, the Left parties improved their performance marginally in the 2024 general election as they were heading towards victory on at least eight seats on Tuesday, even as their vote share did not increase significantly.

The Left parties were at their lowest in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, when only three MPs from the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and two from the Communist Party of India could win their seats. Of those five seats, four -- two each of the CPI(M) and the CPI -- were in Tamil Nadu, while the CPI(M) also won a seat in Kerala.

The CPI(M), which fielded 52 candidates this time, was leading with comfortable margins on four seats, while a close contest was being witnessed on one seat in Kerala. Both the CPI and the CPI(ML) Liberation appeared headed towards victory on two seats each.

The CPI(M) sprung a surprise in Rajasthan, with its candidate from Sikar, Amra Ram, leading over his closest rival, Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Sumedhanand Saraswati, by a margin of more than 70,000 votes.

In Tamil Nadu, the CPI(M) was headed towards victory on both the seats -- Madurai and Dindigul -- from which it had fielded candidates.

In Kerala, CPI-M’s K Radhakrishnan was leading against Congress’s Ramya Haridas by more than 19,000 votes from Alathur. A close contest was meanwhile witnessed in Attingal between the CPI-M’s V Joy and the Congress’s Adoor Prakash.

None of the Left parties could win any seat in West Bengal. Among the prominent candidates, CPI-M’s Mohammad Salim was all set to lose the Murshidabad seat to Trinamool Congress’s (TMC) Abu Taher Khan, who was leading by over 10,000 votes.

The CPI, which had fielded 30 candidates, won two seats in Tamil Nadu -- Tirupur and Nagapattinam -- maintaining its 2019 tally.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation was leading on two of the three seats it contested in Bihar.

In Arrah, Sudama Prasad of the CPI(ML) Liberation was leading against Union minister R K Singh of the BJP by more than 43,969 votes.

In Karakat, Raja Ram Singh of the CPI(ML) Liberation was leading against the NDA candidate, Upendra Kushwaha of the Rashtriya Lok Morcha, by around 7,000 votes. Expelled BJP member and Bhojpuri actor-singer Pawan Singh, who was in the third position here, turned out to be the NDA’s nemesis.