Since the split in the Communist Party of India (CPI) in 1964, the party delivered its worst-ever performance in Bengal on Friday.
Even while the Left Front got nearly 30 per cent of the votes polled, the percentage of share is down by nearly 14 per cent, compared to 2009.
Incidentally, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) gained nearly 12%, compared to 2009. While the detailed break-up of poll percentage is yet to emerge, many believe that the BJP has mainly cut into the Left Front’s vote base. In 2009, Left had won 15 out of 42 seats in Bengal and had a vote share of 43.30%. On Friday, CPI-M got two seats, which is three seats less than what it got in 1967, three years after the split in the Communist party.
The Left has won Murshidabad and Raiganj. The CPI (M) won Murshidabad, after 15 years, defeating two-time winner Abdul Mannan Hossain of the Congress.
Badrudozza Khan of the CPI (M), a teacher by profession, was the candidate from Murshidabad. In Raiganj, CPI (M) leader Md Salim, defeated his two key rivals – Congress candidate Deepa Dasmunshi, wife of former Union Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi, and brother of Priya Ranjan, Satya Ranjan Dasmunshi. However, Mr. Salim won by a very slim margin. Interestingly, the CPI (M) won both their seats in north-central Bengal, the bastion of the Congress, after one-and-a-half decades.
The Left Front came close to winning a few seats but ended up getting only two. While the CPI (M) and its partners alleged that “large-scale rigging including false voting by the TMC” affected the coalition’s poll prospects, the inevitable question after Friday is about the future of the Left in Bengal. Can they turn around at a time when the BJP has clearly emerged a formidable power in West Bengal? And when the traditional ‘block’ voters of the CPI (M) – Muslims – are still aligning with the TMC, is it possible for the Left to make a comeback by 2016 Assembly election?
Front chairman Biman Basu said that the “result is unexpected.” Many in the CPI (M) camp thought that the BJP would cut into the TMC’s vote, thus helping the Left increase its seats, if not the percentage. But since early Friday morning, the trends were clear. It was evident that the BJP is cutting into the Left’s vote base. Actor Moon Moon Sen, who is not aware of the number of booths in her constituency, defeated nine-time winner Basudeb Acharya of the CPI (M). Six-time winner Ramchandra Dom from Bolpur constituency was defeated by another newcomer and an academic, Anupam Hazra of the TMC. Three-time winner from Medinipur, CPI’s Prabodh Panda, lost to a former actor, Sandhya Roy of the TMC.
Other important leaders of the Left who lost are Pulin Bihari Baskey, Bangsha Gopal Chowdhury, Ashim Dasgupta, Debesh Das, Sujan Chakravarty of the CPI (M), Manohar Tirkey, Bimal Sarkar, Subhas Naskar of the RSP, and Santosh Rana of the CPI. But when asked who is responsible for the series of defeats, the Front chairman said that “no individual can be held responsible for this result.”
