Political Forces Will Realign For 2019 LS Polls: CPI

Hyderabad: The CPI has said that the realignment of political forces in the country is possible in the run-up to the general election next year, in the backdrop of BJP's defeat in the recent Lok Sabha bypolls in Uttar Pradesh.

The results of the by-elections in UP, Bihar and Rajasthan have indicated that BJP's stock was decreasing and the people were disillusioned with the lead party of the NDA, party General Secretary S Sudhakar Reddy said.

"There is a possibility of realignment. This realignment is the policy which the CPI has been talking about from the beginning. There should be a one-to-one contest, if not an all India understanding between all the parties," the party General Secretary S Sudhakar Reddy told PTI here.

"So, I hope in most of the (LS) seats, it takes place. We now believe after the bypoll results in Uttar Pradesh, it is the beginning of the end of the BJP rule in the country," he said. The votes of Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) have increased marginally, but the BJP's vote share has come down considerably, he said.

"It is very interesting to note that the vote share of the SP and BSP showed little increase, only five to six per cent, whereas the votes of BJP have dropped from five lakh to three lakh in the Gorakhpur constituency. In Phulpur also, a substantial number of votes of BJP have been lost," he said.

The BJP last week lost the Lok Sabha bypolls in Gorakhpur and Phulpur constituencies in Uttar Pradesh and Araria in Bihar. The Gorakhpur seat was won by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in 2014. He later resigned when the BJP came to power in the state.

The Telugu Desam Party and former Bihar chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi's party pulling out of NDA government at the Centre would also impact the course of developments, he said. (PTI)