The party hopes to do better in the state "provided people are allowed to come to polling booths and cast their ballots. In West Bengal, people are being terrorised in their villages and homes, so that they don't come out and vote," senior CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury told PTI here.
Maintaining that his party and other Left parties would do "much better this time if they could exercise their franchise freely," he said CPI(M) had got 39 per cent votes in the last local bodies' elections in West Bengal that are "universally accepted as the most rigged polls".
"Trinamool Congress is encouraging and exploiting the growth of Muslim fundamentalists and it has affected our party as well," he said, adding the minority vote bank had become "shaky due to many factors and, as a consequence, minority leaders who have been supporting CPI(M) have also become shaky."
Growing activities of Muslim fundamentalists in Bangladesh was also "fuelling the rise of such sentiments across the border. In the neighbouring country, the main fight is between the fundamentalists and the democrats."
"In recent history, Jamaat had held one of the biggest rallies in Kolkata few months ago, that too on issues related to developments in Bangladesh," he said.