Left-Congress to test Trinamool in Purulia

The Trinamool is on a sticky wicket here as the party’s vote share in the Lok Sabha elections was less than the composite share of the Left and the Congress in five seats; in another three, it was only marginally better.

GUARDING THE VOTE: Jawans conduct a security check on the eve ofthe Assembly polls at Jangal Mahal in West Bengal. Photo: PTI

With the first phase of polling for the West Bengal Assembly elections beginning in a few hours, the challenge for the ruling Trinamool Congress is not last week’s flyover collapse in Kolkata or the recent Narada sting operation, but the coming together of the Left-Congress alliance. Out of 18 seats going to polls on Monday, the Left has put up candidates in 13 and the Congress in five. Call it an alliance, a front or just an opportunistic understanding, the Left and the Congress ties have upset the Trinamool.

“‘Political compulsion’ has encouraged us to have this hridayer bandhan [heart-to-heart ties],” said Dinanath Lodha, CPI(M) district secretariat member in Purulia, where all nine constituencies will go to polls on Monday. Local Congress leader Ramzan Mridha and Mr. Lodha did not see eye to eye for many moons, but the “compulsion” to keep the Trinamool in the Opposition has got them together, Mr. Lodha said.

But this coming together, after many hiccups, is the last thing that the Trinamool wanted, especially in the initial phases. In a majority of the seats in Purulia, the Trinamool is on a sticky wicket. The 2014 Lok Sabha poll results reveal that the party’s vote share was less than the composite share of the Left and the Congress (not in alliance in 2014) in five of Purulia’s nine seats. In another three, the composite vote was only marginally less than the Trinamool’s. Party leaders argue that the transfer of votes will not be smooth between the Congress and the Left.

Even if the transfer is not perfect, bagging seven of nine seats, which the Trinamool captured in alliance with the Congress in the 2011 Assembly poll, will be an uphill task in the early phase.

Safe in Paschim Medinipur

In six Assembly seats of Paschim Medinipur, the Trinamool is clearly ahead of the alliance, as the 2014 results underscore. In these seats in the erstwhile Maoist stronghold, welfare projects, directly overseen by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, worked reasonably well and the condition of rural infrastructure improved. “It is a question of improving our margin here,” said Sukumar Hansda, a Minister and candidate from the area. However, in Bankura, where three seats are going to the polls, the Trinamool may witness a tough contest, again due to the alliance factor.

So the initial part of the first phase, with substantial tribal and limited Muslim votes, keeps the Trinamool on the edge. “Realising that we have a challenge, we ensured that all [the factions of the Trinamool] come together and they did,” said Manoj Saha Babu, a Trinanool leader said.