With the recent bypolls marking a continuing slide in its vote share since the rout in the 2011 Assembly polls, the Left Front in West Bengal is eyeing the approaching panchayat election with concern.
The panchayat election is an acid test for both the Left Front and the Trinamool Congress. While the LF expects recovery of its lost voter base, the TMC is keen to see that its popularity is kept intact.
The Panchayati Raj System, introduced in West Bengal by the Left Front a year after its historic massive victory in the 1977 Assembly polls, has always been a true reflector of swing in the power equation in West Bengal.
The elected three-tier Panchayat system - gram panchayats, panchayat samitis and zilla parishads - covers more than 200 Assembly seats, out of 294 seats in Bengal.
Apart from the declining vote share, the LF, which till the last panchayat poll in 2008 held over 12 Zilla Parishads, is also worried about alleged terror let loose by the ruling Trinamool Congress in the rural areas.
"Hundreds of our party workers have been rendered homeless by the reign of terror unleashed by Trinamool Congress. TMC leaders in rural areas are threatening that they won't allow the Left Front to field candidates," CPI(M) leader Mohammed Salim charged.
The two most important factors dictating the fate of rural polls are mass base in the rural population and acceptability among the minorities which constitute nearly 30 per cent of the total electorate of the state. The Left's ground has slipped in both the segments.
The LF had enjoyed uninterrupted power in rural areas for more than three decades by milking the benefits of its landmark land reforms and land distribution.
The anti-land acquisition protests in Singur and Nandigram in 2007 queered the pitch for the LF which suffered major reverses in the 2008 panchayat election. The election saw the TMC emerge victorious in East Midanpore and South 24-Parganas rural bodies which were till then considered as an impregnable Left fort.
