Central observers stay away from stormy Bengal CPM poll meet

At a day-long meeting where the party central observers were conspicuous by their absence,the CPIMs West Bengal state committee....

At a day-long meeting where the party central observers were conspicuous by their absence,the CPIMs West Bengal state committee on Sunday tried to analyse the reasons for their recent debacle in the general elections in the state. A primary analysis of the results shows that at least 13 lakh voters who voted to bring back the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee-led Government in 2006,did not vote for the CPIM or the Left this time.

Understandably,the session was stormy,as different leaders attributed different factors national to regional issues,the attempt to topple the Central Government etc to the debacle. In the end,however,they were unanimous on the challenges that lay ahead the municipal polls on June 28 and the Assembly polls in 2011.

Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee,Industries Minister Nirupam Sen,CPIM state secretary and politburo member Biman Bose and a host of other important CPIM leaders were present at the meeting. But significantly,there were no central observers in the form of politburo members from Delhi. The tradition is to have such observers when the party is dissecting issues of great import.

Another state committee member Lakshman Seth,who lost from the Tamluk Lok Sabha seat,left the meeting within five minutes citing a gas leak in Haldia.

Around 3.5 per cent of the partys committed voters switched support to the Trinamool-Congress alliance,leaving the Left with a 43.30 per cent vote-share,down from 50.72 percent in the 2004 Lok Sabha polls. The only comparable setback for the Left Front was in the 1999 Lok Sabha polls,when its vote share totalled only 46.74 per cent. The Opposition Trinamool Congress,Congress and BJP together got 51.48 per cent of the votes then. But as the Congress and Trinamool Congress had contested separately,they got only 13 seats and the rest 29 were bagged by the LF. Analysts say that the results could have been reversed if Mamata Banerjee had not split the Congress in 1998 and joined the NDA.

Apart from national and state specific factors,party insiders said that the image of party functionaries at various levels was responsible for the erosion in vote-share. In many areas,party functionaries were seen as corrupt and arrogant,totally devoid of any grassroots links.

A senior party comrade said: It is difficult to assess how many of our voters shifted camps,but it is evident that the number is very high. It is very difficult to know whether new voters supported us or our committed votes voted against the LF.

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We have to win over the minds of the people who have deserted us, said Biman Bose,who blamed national factors for the debacle.