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Left Front's support base widens

Marcus Dam

In West Bengal, the CPI(M)-led Left Front has consolidated its hold in the rural areas while making huge inroads in urban centres.

IN ROMPING home with a more than two-thirds majority — 235 seats out of 293 — the Left Front in West Bengal won more than 50 per cent of the votes cast, an increase of nearly four percentage points over the last time. It has consolidated its hold in the rural areas while making huge inroads in urban centres, particularly in the four southern districts.

Even in Kolkata, which the Opposition considers its bastion, the tally of the Left parties increased by two seats to nine out of 21. The two-fold increase in the margin of Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's victory, from the pre-dominantly middle class electorate of Jadavpur in the south of the city, is symptomatic of the growing appeal of the policies of his government among the urban population.

Corporate Bengal also will be satisfied with the Left Front's success. A whopping 97 per cent had felt, in a pre-election survey, that there was no "visible alternative" to the Left Front government. It ranked West Bengal as the third most attractive destination among the States for investment. Mr. Bhattacharjee's confidence-building efforts for a more congenial business climate were largely lauded. He has promised that a priority of his next government will be to accelerate the momentum of investment in industry and agri-business.

The new government will focus on greater reforms and better performance, Mr. Bhattacharjee has promised. The "do-it-now" mantra will have to be injected with greater "work dynamism," he has said.

But the Left Front's citadel remains rural West Bengal. The government's achievements in the agrarian sector, its land reforms, its success in extending multi-cropping, and the initiatives taken to strengthen the panchayat system have all contributed to consolidating political control in rural areas. This holds true across the State — whether in Burdwan district in the south, considered the rice-bowl of the State, or the tea gardens of the Dooars in the north.

The 2003 pattern holds

The electorate in the countryside seems to have voted much along the lines it had in the 2003 panchayat elections. The Left Front had then bagged nearly 75 per cent of the gram panchayat seats. The Left Front leadership says the percentage of people living below the poverty line in the State, 20, is one of the lowest in the country. Helping this section and consolidating the success of previous governments in agriculture are high on the agenda of Mr. Bhattacharjee's next government.

Building on past successes to pave the way for future ones is, it appears, the Left Front's credo that has made possible its run of electoral victories in recent years.

Among the Left Front partners what is significant is the performance of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), which now has a comfortable majority on its own in the new State Assembly. By winning 176 seats, the party fell short of just 12 seats to break its own record set in 1991. Buoyed by a well-knit party organisation and supported by different mass organisations affiliated to it, the CPI(M)'s performance has even surprised many within the party.

Allegations of rifts within the CPI(M) over the pro-investment policies being adopted by the Left Front government have apparently not held good. Mr. Bhattacharjee does not deny differences within the party. Debates on important issues are "only healthy and natural." To him has fallen the task of trying to establish a "consensus" within the party that could facilitate the implementation by his government of development programmes connected with contentious issues. These include converting crop land to sites for new industries and getting trade unions to tone down their earlier militancy.

Even senior Left Front leaders admit that the split in the Opposition votes had helped pave the way for the massive Left Front victory "though it would have come anyway." From a combined strength of 86 in the last elections when they had an electoral alliance, the tallies of the Trinamool Congress and the Congress have fallen to 29 and 21, respectively, in the recent polls. This despite Trinamool leader Mamata Banerjee's claims of a "mahajot" (grand anti-Left alliance) formed at the "grass roots" level in at least 80 per cent of the seats, though it could not be formalised.

Besides, the stringent measures taken by the Election Commission to ensure a "level playing field for all" in these elections — resulting in the highest voter turnout in Assembly elections held in the State — has denied the Opposition the chance to explain away the defeat by pointing to election malpractices.

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