The left decided to go it alone in the elections to the Bihar Legislative Assembly, ignoring the perils of such a stand-alone strategy. It ignored the fact that a fragmented secular vote had worked to the Bharatiya Janata Party’s advantage in the parliamentary elections in 2014. This article dissects the vote shares of parties and alliances in the parliamentary and Bihar elections and finds that though the left’s strategy resulted in an increase in its vote share, it also benefi ted the BJP.
