'Significant decline in UDF votes, lost their sitting seat in Alathur as well'; nothing happened to CPM, says MV Govindan

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: CPM state secretary MV Govindan has responded to the party's poor performance in the Lok Sabha elections. Speaking to the media, Govindan said nothing has happened to the party and that its foundation is still intact. The Left Front was able to win only one seat in the Lok Sabha elections.

"As far as the party is concerned, there is no crisis. We have not lost our basic votes. We received only 47 percent this time. There has been a reduction of 5 per cent. We had 36 per cent votes and lost only one percent this time. It shows that the party's base remains strong," Govindan said.

"We had earlier said that the BJP would not open its account in Kerala. We thought that they would capture the votes of Congress. As far as the Congress is concerned, there has been a reduction of 86,000 votes. Suresh Gopi won by 74,000 votes. The number of CPM votes dropped by around 6,000. You do the rest of the math. I am right in saying that BJP will not win. However, it was the Congres that made the BJP win," Govindan said.

"The party will make examine the cause of defeat and make necessary corrections. We don't have any problem with that. We will go forward by making the corrections. V Joy's defeat in Attingal cannot be counted as defeat. Like the previous time, we will recapture it. Although the entire media worked like an ally of the UDF, we did not experience a significant reduction in our vote share. There is no damage to the party's face," Govindan added.