CPM continues march in Bengal

MANDATE 2004

The Left Front in West Bengal has again averted any semblance of a wave against the ruling government. If anything, it performed a little better than expected in the Lok Sabha polls in the state.

The Left Front did not face the anti-incumbency wave that swept the country because it managed to convince voters on crucial issues, said winning Communist Party of India (Marxist) candidate Sujan Chakravorti from the Jadavpur seat.

"The National Democratic Alliance government had reduced interest rates, shut factories and followed other disastrous economic policies that turned away voters," he said.

Second, the Trinamool Congress appeared to voters as a party with unstable policies and non-existent ethics because it quit the NDA after the Tehelka affair, joined hands with the Congress for the last Assembly polls and then rejoined the NDA. The third factor was clearly the end of in-fighting in the CPM.

"I told the factions to unite and deliver the Dumdum seat, which we lost to Tapan Sikdar of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) because of in-fighting. I am happy the seat has been recovered," CPM leader Jyoti Basu told the media today.

The second BJP seat was held by SB Mukherjee. He has lost, wiping out the BJP from Bengal. Industry circles in the city however attributed the victory to the Left Front government, which has its own agenda for development with a human face. This appeared to voters the best alternative.

The Left campaign was greatly aided by the energy and positive approach of Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharya at the state level.

Bhattacharya's government had commissioned major power plants, kept up investments in hydroelectric power and irrigation projects and worked hard to develop the iron and steel industry in the state.

The government had launched a campaign to attract information technology and IT-enabled services companies to the state, offering good power and infrastructure and revised labour laws.

These have conveyed to the electorate that the Left was a new Left, that the old political formation under the new chief minister was for all practical purposes a new political entity that delivered all the benefits of a change of government.

The Congress has made surprise gains in the central region of the state, with stalwarts like Pranab Mukherjee, Priya Ranjan Das Munshi, Adbul Gani Khan Chowdhury and Adhir Chowdhury doing well.

The Congress also divided anti-Left votes in the urban areas, eating away into the Trinamool Congress votebank and enabling CPM candidates to romp home.

The Congress delivered the only setback that the Left Front experienced as the seats reduced its tally by five. However, this loss was more than compensated by the recovery of as many as eight seats from the NDA, which survived with only Mamata Banerjee retaining her Kolkata South seat.

Political analyst Sibasis Chatterjee said, "The Left Front is a long-distance runner, with locality-based organisations and clubs that work through the year on social welfare projects, women's empowerment and other issues. This was in stark contrast with other parties in the state which do not have a similar machinery."

Jayantanuj Banerjee, another political analyst, said the fact the Election Commission brought in large number of officials from outside the state to monitor elections irritated voters.

They saw this as a pre-election feedback in the vernacular media in particular had indicated a minor rise in the share of the Left Front, some gains for the Indian National Congress and erosion of the support base of the Trinamool Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party.

However, the actual detailed results surprised many. Shock losers included former central minister S B Mukherjee in Krishnanagar, where CPM greenhorn Jyotirmayi Sikdar defeated him.

Another stunning gain made by the Left was in Kolkata city, where CPM's Sudhangshu Sil snatched away the Kolkata North-west seat from ex-Trinamool candidate Sudip Bandopadhyay, while the Jadavpur seat was won by CPM's Sujan Chakravorti from Krishna Bose of Trinamool.

However, industry in the state pointed at the fact that Navin Patnaik also defeated the anti-incumbency wave in the neighbouring state of Orissa, with which Bengal has close links.

"I feel personally, Patnaik's resistance to the privatisation of Nalco has endeared him to voters," said the president of a business chamber in the city.