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The Left Front government in West Bengal has not exactly been the Kremlin whose imposing edifice would collapse if only someone hammered down the door. Rather,the Lefts impregnable Fortress Bengal appears to be crumbling all over simultaneously,with Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee looking like the patriarch surprised by sudden ageing and weakening,humiliatingly relegated to contemplating in silence the piling ruins around. Perhaps it is easier and more pertinent to discuss what can be done to avoid total political and administrative disaster in Bengal than dwell on Bhattacharjees predicament. What began in Nandigram and Singur,routed through Lalgarh and a most embarrassing engagement with Maoists,as well as cadre-related political violence,has since the Lok Sabha results exposed itself as a near-total collapse of governance. Bhattacharjees government has long lost the will,to say nothing of the way,to govern. It would not be an exaggeration to remark that the promise offered by Bhattacharjee taking over as chief minister has been ingloriously belied on all fronts.

Given the current political circumstances in Bengal,the Left Front government should resign and call for assembly elections. In technical terms,the 32-year-old state government has not lost the mandate to rule,since the Lefts defeat in the Lok Sabha polls,in the recent assembly by-elections and in civic polls earlier does not negate the 2006 assembly election verdict till 2011. However,for practical purposes,Bengal has no functioning government and the Left Fronts administration is popularly per-ceived to lack legitimacy. Not surprisingly,the rumblings are shaking the Left Front from within,with a veteran minister in Bhattacharjees cabinet calling for his resignation and fresh polls. The fracture within the Left Front characterises the state CPM too and,despite the terseness and evasiveness of official comments,the chief minister is not exactly being looked up to within his party. Meanwhile,residents of Bengal are being increasingly exposed to the Maoist menace and the crossfire from Trinamool-CPM cadre battles. Not only should the violence stop but the state must also have a government capable of taking decisions and acting on them. Above all,it cannot persist with a paralysed administration that cannot provide security and a socio-economic direction.

A fresh mandate,no matter who wins,will have the benefit of conferring perceptible legitimacy on the state government and,hopefully,help to halt outbreaks of violence. A new administration is more likely to display the will and ability to govern. And the very process of bidding for a fresh mandate would cleanse the Left of some of its internal contradictions. The use-by date on the Lefts singular institutional mechanism in Bengal has expired. The vacuum created by the overlap of party and administration needs now to be filled afresh.