After the disastrous performance of the Left parties in West Bengal and Kerala elections, the CPM and CPI leaders in the state are in a state of confusion and do not know where to go.

With the immediate concern of the Left being the necessity to devise a strategy to continue to have a political existence in the state, both the left parties have worked on strategies to maintain good relations with the TDP while trying to hug the YSR Congress party leader and Kadapa MP Mr. YS Jaganmohan reddy.

They desperately need an identity for themselves and are not in a position to zero in on the party that would give them a thread to hang on in the state in order to protect their political existence. Will it be TDP’s Chandrababu Naidu or YSR Congress party’s Jagan?

For sure, they know that the plight of the congress at the moment in the state is pitiable for all practical purposes. They have no doubt that Jagan with his money power can create a political tsunami in the next elections whenever they are held. But they are not in a position to assess whether people will accept Jagan as their leader. They know very well the Kadapa victory can’t be a yardstick to assess Jagan party’s winning chances across the state.

The Left leaders are also unable to come to a conclusion about the ensuing political fortunes of the TDP supremo. Chandrababu, while continuing to fight on public issues against the government all these days, has not clearly stated his position vis-à-vis Telangana issue till now. They have a lingering doubt somewhere in their minds that Chandrababu may hit the jackpot in the next elections and lead his party to victory if Jagan is disliked by the people.

While CPM and CPI fought the 2004 elections in alliance with congress and got 9 and 6 seats respectively, they associated with the TDP in the 2009 elections winning only 1 and 4 seats respectively.

With whom to associate now to get a good number of seats in the next elections to have a political existence is the question haunting the Left leaders. If they go with Jagan, people may hate them for joining hands with the most corrupt person on the earth who have accumulated wealth illegally through the power of his father late YSR. And if they go with Naidu, they may not get a single seat if people reject him in the next elections.

At the moment, they have kept their doors open for both TDP and YSR Congress thinking that they can open one of the doors for the party that would be favoured by the people at the eleventh hour and close the other for the party that would be hated.