The Left parties bagged 16 of the 29 Assembly seats they contested in Bihar, snapping a streak of setbacks plaguing the alternative voice for years.

The CPI-ML won 12 of the 19 seats it contested, the CPM two of four and the CPI two of six. The vote share of the Left also increased from around 3.5 per cent in the previous polls to 5.5 per cent despite contesting a fewer number of seats.

The results are a big leap over the 2015 polls, in which the Left parties had won just three seats, all by the CPI-ML.

This is also the Left’s best performance since 1995 when the parties had shared 38 MLAs in an undivided Bihar that included present-day Jharkhand. The front had slipped steadily since then.

Buoyed by the latest results, the parties are now eying to expand to newer areas and conduct issue-based agitations for the common people.

“It would have been more satisfying had the government changed. We would have then called it a brilliant performance. These elections have been an upsurge against the present government, an agitation by the youth and the common people and the explosion of their anger,” CPI-ML general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya told The Telegraph.

“We had always been working on the ground irrespective of electoral outcomes, but now we have a stronger team in the legislature with several young leaders. We will try to serve the people in our constituencies better and also serve the cause of democracy in Bihar more effectively,” he added.

The CPI-ML general secretary said the party would remain a part of the Grand Alliance.

The party will also focus more on Bengal in coordination with the other Left parties.

“The Bengal elections are very crucial this time and the people feel inspired by Bihar’s example. It is our next station. We will try to put up a fight together with other Left parties,” Bhattacharya said.