The total number of voters in the 82 civic bodies is 85,33,238 who will elect 141 councillors for the Kolkata Municipal Corporation and 1651 commissioners for 81 municipalities. There will be 10,698 polling booths under the dynamic scanner of 123 observers.

In 2005, the LF won 72 out of 141 wards of KMC. While this time the LF is unlikely to win more than 35. Unforeseen twists and turns in micro-politics during the intervening weeks may cause perceptible variations in the possible outcome, envisioned by poll observers. In 2005, the LF obtained absolute majority in 54 out of 81 municipalities. This time it may hardly retain majority in even 30 of them. Only those who are away from the political pyrotechnics of the significant politico-social change waiting in the threshold of a state, traditionally known as a Left citadel, expect even partial recovery of the ground lost in the LS polls due to collapse of electoral understanding between the Indian National Congress and All India Trinamool Congress.

The CPI(M) central committee in a communiqué after its meeting in February this year sought to drive a wedge in the INC-AITC friendship by characterizing the INC as a less reactionary party than the latter. “The Trinamool Congress is spearheading the anti-Communist force. It is mobilising the lumpen elements and unleashing violence. Unlike the period of semi-fascist terror in the early 1970s when the attack was concentrated in the cities and industrial areas, it is now more widespread in the rural areas. In the present situation, we have to target the TMC and work to isolate them. We have to mobilise the people against the violence and build up resistance. While doing so, we should adopt tactics which will help to weaken the TMC led combination. There has to be a differentiation between the TMC and the Congress given the fact that it is the former which is leading the anti-Communist attack.”

But the Opposition unity - mainly between INC and AITC - is apace at the grassroots level. “This is happening under the pressure of common people who want the two parties not to split anti-CPI(M) votes”, said Pramathesh Sen, general secretary, West Bengal Branch of Indian National Congress. Left Front chairman and CPI(M) polit bureau member Biman Bose said, “Those who expect votes against the Left will be split due to the collapse of Congress-Trinamool Congress alliance are wrong. Down the line, there will be adjustment and alliance and the LF rank and file have to take on the electoral battle assuming that the two parties are in alliance.” Bose who has the deepest and the most extensive organizational touch inside the CPI(M) is very pragmatic.

In KMC, AITC may alone win more than 85 seats and will form board alone in more than 12 munipalities. The INC is very likely to form board in four municipalities of Murshidabad where AITC may not be able to register its presence in the electoral score board.

Veteran political analyst Debashis Bhattacharjee, who spent several years mostly underground as a prominent activist of CPI(ML) when Charu Majumdar was alive and still nurturing a Marxist way of looking at political ground realities, told IPA that the LF might not win more than 30 out of 141 seats of the KMC and 25 out of 81 municipalities. “I don't think the Left Front will win majority in a single municipality of South 24 Parganas, Purba Medinipur, Jalpaiguri and Malda districts. In Coochbehar, it appears the Left will loose the board in two (Mathabhanga and Tufanganj) out of four municipalities.

Among the municipalities which may go in favour of the opposition include English Bazar, Old Malda, Murshidabad, Jiaganj-Azimganj, Kandi and Dhulian of Murshidabad district, Nabadwip, Santipur, Ranaghat, Birnagar, Taherpur and Kanchrapara of Nadia district, Halishahar, Naihati, Bhatpara, Khardaha, Bongaon, Barasat, Baduria, Basirhat, Gobardanga, Taki, New Barrackpore, Ashokenagar-Kalyangarh and Bidhan Nagar of North 24 Parganas district, Budge Budge, Baruipur and Jaynagar-Mazilpur of South 24 Parganas district, Hooghly-Chinsurah Municipality, Bansberia , Serampore , Baidyabati, Champadany, Bhadreswar Uttarpara Kotrung and Tarakeswar of Hooghly district, Tamluk and Contai of Purba Medinipur district,Purulia of Purulia district and Suri and Rampurhat of Birbhum district”, Bhattacharjee thinks.

A former CPI state council member and a well-known journalist is thoroughly pessimistic. “Of the 34 wards of Bidhannagar Municipality, the LF will not win even in six, proving that in the past, the victory was a reflection of manipulations and musclemanship”.

LF chairman in a circular to the workers gave a call to give their best in order to get 50 per cent-plus votes in every municipality and Municipal Corporation. A LF minister, known for snapping fingers at the big brother CPI(M), told his party comrades, “Bimanbabu's directive reflects frustration and nothing”. (IPA Service)