Many Red faces

It was not just the Bengal and Kerala units of the CPIM which gave inflated seat predictions to Prakash Karat,giving him false hopes that the Third Front would be in a position to dictate terms post-May 16. BSP leader Satish Chandra Mishra,who met Karat on the eve of the counting,told him that his party was getting 45 out of the 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh. Similarly the TDP also gave an impression that it was getting at least half of the seats in Andhra Pradesh. With the Bengal and Kerala units of the CPIM reporting that the Left would get 28 and 10-12 seats in these states respectively and allies promising better showing,Karats hopes for formation of a Third Front government were at its peak till the EVMs were opened. No wonder,the CPIM top boss is feeling let down.