It isn't only the successive setbacks which the communists have faced - first in the parliamentary and then in the municipality polls - which must cause them considerable concern. It is the bonanza of railway projects which Mamata Banerjee has announced for the state which should worry them because their high employment potential could cut the ground from under their feet.

As if to rub salt in the CPI(M)'s wounds, she has decided in favour of a new railway line from Singur to Nandigram, the two villages which were the centres of her successful anti-Left campaign, which made these two obscure areas famous all over India even if it made West Bengal lose the Nano car project of the Tatas to Gujarat.

But, as if to make up for the resultant loss of employment potential, the Railway Minister has very nearly gone overboard in showering her state with gifts of new schemes which will be able to provide jobs at various levels.

Foremost among them is a 1,000 MW power plant at Adra in the tribal-dominated Purulia district, where the Santaldih power station is also located. Her proposal to take over three loss-making PSUs - Burn Standard, Braithwaite and Basumati (the last-named organization has a printing press) - may make the reformers in the Union cabinet squirm in discomfort, but the steps are bound to be seen in West Bengal as a source of employment.

But, even more than these sick PSUs, the establishment of a coach factory in Kancharapara and of four units for the production of rolling stock and for “rehabilitating” coaches in Dankuni, Majerhat and Naopara will be widely welcomed.

In addition, the new railway lines from Salboni to Jhargram via Lalgarh and the upgradation of several stations, including the one at Lalgarh, will provide employment opportunities.

It is too early to say to what extent she will be successful in these ventures in view of the constraints on resources in a time of economic slowdown. But it is obvious that if work starts on even a few of these plans, her popularity, which is already high, will go up even more.

Even if the Centre does not feel too happy about her spending spree if only because it will attract criticism from other states, it is unlikely to raise any objections in view of the distinct possibility of the Congress-Trinamool Congress combination giving the left a run for their money in the next election.

It is worth noting that all this expenditure in the public sector is exactly what Ashok Mitra, who was finance minister in Jyoti Basu's cabinet, has been advocating in recent years while opposing Buddhadev Bhattacharjee's wooing of the capitalists.

There is little doubt that the chief minister will be caught in a cleft stick, for he will neither be able to criticize Mamata Banerjee's “socialistic” style of functioning, nor will he able to woo the private sector as ardently as before because of her threats to scuttle any projects which involve the acquisition of agricultural land.

Already, she has threatened to undo the state government's private sector-based industrial plans for Nayachar, an island on the Hooghly-Bhagirathi river, downstream from Kolkata. What is more, given Mamata Banerjee's growing clout, no industrialist will dare to defy her, as the Tatas did earlier because of the belief about the Left's firm political control.

How and why the Left lost that control is a matter of internal debate for them. But an explanation can perhaps be found in CPI leader, A.B. Bardhan's observation that the Leftist cadres had been behaving like “sharks” instead of living among the people like fish in the water. The realization dawned on Bardhan after the setbacks in the parliamentary poll.

Hindsight suggests that the Left's overwhelming victory in the 2006 assembly elections in terms of seats (though not where voting percentages are concerned) made the cadres even more high-handed than before. It was their arrogance, combined with the chief minister's impetuosity in acquiring farm land for industries, which have tilted the scales against the Left.

Because of the latter's haughtiness, the ordinary people are now apparently willing to give Mamata Banerjee a chance despite her reckless brand of politics, which has included collaborating with the Maoists. Even the ouster of Nano does not seem to have affected her popularity among the urban intelligentsia. Hence, the successes of the Congress-Trinamool Congress alliance this time unlike the failure of the same combination in 2001.

If Mamata Banerjee's new projects can dispel some of the gloom over the inadequacy of employment opportunities in West Bengal, her acceptability among all sections is bound to go up despite her deliberate cultivation of the dishevelled aam admi look which makes her seem to be lacking in elegance. (IPA Service)