Left helped BJP win 10 seats in Bihar: Chandy

Thiruvananthapuram: By fielding over 220 candidates in Bihar, the Left helped the BJP to win 10 more seats which it would have otherwise lost, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said on Thursday.

Taking a potshot at the Left parties for independently fighting the Bihar assembly polls, Chandy said the Left would soon describe its decision as another "historic blunder".

The reference was to late CPI-M leader Jyoti Basu's description of his party's decision not to make him the prime minister of a United Front government in 1996 as a "historic blunder".

"The decision to field their own candidates helped the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) and they have realised their folly," Chandy said in a statement here.

"Now, the CPI-M, after failing to prevent communal forces from forging ahead, will say it was another case of historic blunder."

Chandy will be among those who will attend the swearing-in ceremony of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Friday in Patna.

An alliance of six Left parties fielded candidates in 221 of the 243 assembly seats in Bihar and drew a blank. The BJP won only 53 seats while the Grand Alliance of Nitish Kumar bagged 178.

"Their (Left) strategy resulted in 10 more seats for the BJP. In these seats, it was found that the presence of Left candidates split (the anti-BJP) votes," Chandy said.

"In many seats, the victory margin of BJP candidates was less than the votes secured by Left candidates," he said.

"The CPI-M has always helped the BJP, be it in 1977 or in 1989... All this shows their failure to effectively counter fascist forces," he said.