Moments after the West Bengal election results were beamed across local channels, senior CPI(M) leader Mohammed Salim drove to the party headquarters at Alimuddin Street with a calm look on his face. Later, in an interview to FE?s Ronojoy Banerjee, he said that the party is going to carry out a comprehensive study of the defeat and find answers to why its traditional vote bank turned against it.
Edited excerpts:
The CPI(M) has finished with a tally of just 69 seats versus 235 in 2006. What?s the road ahead for the party?
Change in Bengal is imminent. It is a clear mandate from the people. The CPI(M) would now play a role of the opposition, which is as important as the government in a democracy.
What according to you proved to be the party?s undoing?
It is difficult to answer that at this stage. We have to go down to the basics of the issue and then come out with a clear road map. Every issue and aspect would be deeply analysed and also would seek to answer questions such as why our traditional support base did not vote for us.
Can you identify two or three key areas that the party would want to focus on at this stage?
Again, it is early to identify at this stage. But we are going to do a comprehensive analysis for the defeat and these would be mainly across three levels ? administrative, political and organisational.
Some people are saying that this is possibly the time for the party to look at promoting younger faces. We already have many young faces within the party and many have joined us from our student bodies. That process would go on where we groom the younger people so that they are ready to take up leadership roles tomorrow.
What?s the future for the party?
It is going to be a long road for us. We are going to address key concerns and strengthen the party, rectify the mistakes that we have done and introspect.