Testing times for LF in Bengal

If the first phase of polls (April 30) in West Bengal was a Left versus Congress battle, the remaining phases on May 7 and 13 will be a Left versus Trinamool slugfest. The remaining two rounds will be acid tests for both  — for the Left to retain its supremacy in the state and for the Trinamool to exploit the anti-incumbency.

In fact, the 28 constituencies going to the polls in the final phases include those belts where the Left’s authority was eroded during the panchayat  polls last year, a situation from which the Trinamool benefited richly.

The Left Front has remembered that lesson, a reason why it is sparing no effort to win back traditional voters. LF chairman Biman Bose said as much, “I appeal to comrades to visit each and every house and apologise for past mistakes, if necessary apologise with folded hands.”

The Trinamool is eager to cash in on the panchayat sentiment. For this, it has armed itself with a list of talking points for each constituency. If land acquisition is its prime issue in agricultural belts, the Rizwanur Rahman tragedy and the Sachar Committee Report on the living conditions of Muslims in West Bengal is its key card in minority-dominated seats.

So complex is the votebank politics in the state that even hardcore political analysts are reluctant to project an outcome. “During the panchayat polls, there was a general anti-Left sentiment in rural Bengal because of land acquisition,” said a senior political analyst. “Though that sentiment still prevails, it didn’t reflect in the voter turnout in the first phase.”

He added, “In the panchayat polls, the contest was between a united opposition and a divided Left because the CPI-M and its allies were not getting along well. In the next two phases, it will be a united LF fighting an united opposition.”