With ruling Left Front in West Bengal performing badly in the assembly by-polls, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Tuesday declined to comment on the results.
“No,” Bhattacharjee, a senior CPI(M) member shot back when reporters questioned him at the state secretariat, Writers Buildings, to comment on the poll outcome.
Jyoti Basu, who had issued an unprecedented appeal to the Congress to vote for the left in the byelections, was not told about the results of the ten assembly constituencies.
“He was not informed of the election results. What does he have to say about it now?” the 96-year-old marxist veteran’s aide Joykrishna Ghosh said when asked.
Meanwhile, Left Front chairman Biman Bose said the front had accepted the people’s mandate and would analyse the factors responsible for the reverses.
“The mandate has gone against the Left Front. We have accepted the mandate. We will analyse,” Bose, also the CPI(M) state secretary, said in his reaction.
The CPI(M) contested five, CPI two, Forward Bloc, RSP and DSP one each. Except Forward Bloc, which won the seat it contested, all the other Front partners drew a blank.