After seven straight victories, the Left Front government in West Bengal today came crumbling down, unable to withstand the 'paribartan' (wave for change) of the Trinamool Congress.
The CPI(M)-led Front built on its strength as the harbinger of land reforms, was the champion of the poor for 34 years of uninterrupted rule, till it hit a brick wall over its decision to acquire land for industry.
The tenure of Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee heading the sixth Left Front government made a promising start in 2001 when it won 199 of the 294 seats.
During his second tenure in 2006 after the Left Front emerged victorious winning a stupendous 235 seats, quite paradoxically, recurring electoral defeats followed since the 2008 panchayat elections, reflecting the writing on the wall.
The down slide began when Bhattacharjee, began to transit from a leader of the masses to corporate India’s preferred chief minister.
Bhattacharjee, immediately after the swearing-in ceremony on May 18, 2006 flanked by Tata Sons Chairman Ratan Tata announced the Nano small car project at Writers’ Buildings.
Bhattacharjee started his second tenure with the now famous 'do it now' slogan to improve work culture in the state which was notorious for its bandhs and strikes. The slogan died a natural death.
The communist chief minister courted capitalists, perhaps not out of choice, but necessity. Industrialisation was clearly the way forward and the chief minister was willing to implement it, whatever it cost.
Even if it meant using veto powers against his allies to renew German wholesaler Metro Cash & Carry’s Agricultural Produce Market Committee licence to banning the words 'gherao' and 'bandhs' from the lexicon of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), he did it all.
The going was good, and Bhattacharjee, the poster boy of the Left Front, leveraged the gains in the 2006 Assembly elections. The results were taken as a mandate for industrialisation.
