Bihar polls will be the first test of the call to defeat BJP: CPI(M)‘s M.A. Baby-OxBig News Network

CPI(M) General Secretary M.A. Baby addressed a press conference, in Patna on May 5, 2025.
| Photo Credit: PTI

Efforts will be made to chalk out a strategy for the Mahagathbandhan to defeat the BJP in the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections, said Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary M.A. Baby, who was in Bihar on Monday (May 5, 2025) ahead of the polls due in October-November this year. This was Mr. Baby’s first visit to the State following his election to the CPI(M) top post.

In 2020 polls to the 243-member Bihar Assembly, CPI(M) contested four seats and won two of them. Party candidates Ajay Kumar and Satyendra Yadav won from Bibhutipur (Samastipur district) and Manjhi (Saran district) respectively.

Before leaving for Kerala, Mr. Baby is scheduled to visit Madhubani on Tuesday (May 6) to meet district-level party leaders and workers.

“CPI(M)’s 24^th Congress was held at Madurai in the first week of April, where party leaders gave a call to defeat the RSS-controlled BJP and its allies by forging the broadest possible unity of the Left, democratic and secular forces all over India. The first test of this call will come in the upcoming Bihar assembly elections,” he said.

Call for nationwide strike

“CPI(M) welcomes the fact that Mahagathbandhan of Bihar has already begun united and serious preparations to achieve this aim,” he said, while appreciating that “Mahagathbandhan of Bihar has whole heartedly given a call to make the May 20 nationwide strike with a great success”.

The Left parties and Samyukta Kisan Morcha have given a call for a nationwide strike on May 20 against “anti-workers, anti-peasants and pro-corporate policies of PM Modi-led Central government”.

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In the 2020 polls in the State, the Left parties — Communist Party of India (CPI), CPI(M) and Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) [CPI(M-L)] — altogether contested from 29 seats and won 16 of them: CPI(M-L) won 12 seats and CPI and CPI(M) won two each. CPI(M-L) had contested on 19 seats, CPI on six and CPI(M) on four.

At a Mahagathbandhan meeting in Patna on Sunday (May 4), CPI(M-L) leader Dipankar Bhattacharya extended support to the nationwide bandh on May 20. “May 20 will be a day for workers’ rights and all constituents of the Mahagathbandhan will stand together on the day. It will be a show of unity ahead of Assembly elections in Bihar,” Mr. Bhattacharya said.

Earlier, a meeting of Bihar CPI(M) State secretariat was held under the guidance of party’s national general secretary M.A. Baby and Polit Bureau member Ashok Dhawale in Patna, said State secretary of the party Lalan Choudhary.