Third Front fails to impress,loses deposit

Kiran Moghe of CPM,despite grabbing a lot of media attention,could manage to get only 3,213 votes from Parvati. Despite the fact that the Front had some major planks like inflation in an election that hardly saw any serious issue being raised,it could not attract many voters.

“The victory of Congress-NCP and the combine overcoming anti-incumbency can be attributed to money and muscle power they used in the elections,” alleged Wadekar. “Besides money and muscle power,we suspect EVMs malfunctioned; soon,we are going to register a complaint with the Election Commission,” he said.

CPM Pune district general secretary Ajit Abhyankar also said that money-muscle combination had played a big role. “Nowadays elections have become an event. One who manages it can make an impression. Though sad,this is a fact. We will have to think of alternatives to take on this event management exercise,” he said.

The defeat of the Front has also started a blame game with the CPM leadership saying that some parties in the Front were not sincere in their efforts. “We will do an in-depth analysis,but prima facie,voters didn’t like CPM going with other entities like the Republican parties. I must also say that some parties in the Front were not sincere in their efforts,” said Abhyankar.

Wadekar though didn’t buy the argument fully; admitted that there could have been more coordination. “We had little time for preparations and could not manage to chalk out a well-planned campaign strategy,” he said.