At one level, Left leaders have learnt the lessons of the 2009 Lok Sabha polls. While expecting some losses owing to the incumbency factor, they had still hoped to win a majority of the 42 seats. Instead the combined opposition of the TMC and the Congress won 26 seats as against 15 by the Left Front. To be fair, not even the most ardent of TMC supporters had expected such a margin either.

State CPI(M) leaders not only lost miserably, winning only 9 seats, but were humiliated as well publicly and within their own party. From the local committee to the zonal, from the state to the Central committee, West Bengal leaders had painted rosier pictures and posted claims which bore no relation to what happened ultimately. They should have been more careful, because the signs of a left decline had first been seen in the panchayat polls, but had been glossed over.

This time, for all the usual high-flown pre-poll rhetoric used by both sides, Left leaders have been cautious. State CPI(M) Secretary and LF Chairman Biman Bose stonewalled all queries from state-based newsmen as to how many seats the front expected to win, whether the ruling Front was finding the going a little easier than before. All that Bose would say was that things had improved slightly after the LS polls, but that was all. “We shall give a realistic assessment of the situation in Bengal at the central Committee,” he said. This is precisely what he and fellow CC members did at the Delhi meeting of the Central committee, which ended in two instead of the scheduled three days.

Curiously, Bose lost his cool when being asked the same question and replying identically, by newsmen in Delhi, setting off speculation about his health. Insiders wondered whether the Bengal contingent had faced a rough time at the CC from their comrades of other states.

Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee continued his post-LS poll policy of staying away from CC and politburo meetings as much as possible. Insiders admit that he feels isolated within the party and the state administration these days, because as a sensitive person he senses the silent opprobrium of his colleagues, who blame him for his obvious failure as an administrator. There is little doubt that his travails will only increase if the ruling LF suffers a defeat in the elections, as seems almost certain. The administration he heads continues to add to his woes, going from very bad to worse, if that is possible.

First, Finance Minister the veteran Ashim Dasgupta who at his age should have known better, faced being penalised over an alleged violation of the pre-poll code of electoral ethics : he continued to sign away important files merrily, promising jobs and other largesse to all and sundry, long after the poll dates had been declared. Second, the Supreme Court admonished the state Government for suppressing facts on the Netai massacre case where armed CPI(M) supporters were accused of killing 9 people including four housewives. The SC asked the state to file a supplementary affidavit within 24 hours! Meanwhile sporadic incidents of eve-teasing and the spiral of political violence continued, indicating that nothing positive could be expected from the caricature of an administration headed by Bhattacharjee.

Talks over seat adjustment within the LF were not exactly proceeding satisfactorily either. It was not clear whether the patient and long suffering CPI would get its demand for more seats as had been promised by the Front almost two decades ago. The RSP and Forward Bloc asked for more seats, pointing out that in the LS polls, they had suffered less than the CPI(M). However, RSP’s high profile Minister Kshiti Goswami’s followers faced a rough time from their party colleagues as he secured nomination to fight from a local seat, because his South Kolkata constituency of Dhakuria had disappeared following delimitation.

So, it is not as though the CPI(M) alone is riven with inner party dissidence. The Bloc has its own dissenters who strongly denounce their party’s policy of kowtowing to the CPI(M).

Meanwhile it was plain sailing for the TMC. First Ms Mamata Banerjee bulldozed her way in parliament in presenting the Railway budget, despite being on a tricky wicket. The Congress high command instructed its state unit to settle seat adjustment talks with the TMC more or less on the latter’s terms. With the DMK abruptly pulling out of the second UPA Ministry and buffeted by charges of major corruption and rampant price rise, the Congress had hardly any choice.

The Congress in the state was pressing for 98 out of 294 seats, but by week’s end it was clear that it would be content to fight from around 60 seats. (IPA Service)