People's Democracy

A clear 10 per cent margin of the votes polled divides the Left Front’s margin of victory over the Trinamul Congress-Pradesh Congress combine -Left Front has secured 48.94 per cent of the valid votes, against 38.92 per cent managed by the alliance of the two Congresses.

The lower percentage of votes cast this year compared to that in 1996 is reflected in the vote share of the Left Front. With around 70 per cent rate of polling this year, the vote share of the Left Front is marginally below the figure of 49.32 per cent chalked up in 1996, when the percentage of valid votes polled had been around 71.5 per cent.

The vote share in 1996 of the two Congresses taken together was 39.48 per cent, slightly better than the percentage they could win this time around. This exposes the hollowness of the happy prognosis of the "psephologists" in the pay of the corporate newspaper houses that the "combined effort of the two Congresses will see an easy ouster of the Left Front this year."

The vote share of the BJP, which stood at 6.45 per cent in 1996, was lowered to the pathetic figure of 5.19 per cent in 2001.

The Left Front is also way ahead of the combined opposition in terms of total votes polled. The numbers are: 1,79,19,718 for the Left Front against 1,42,50,458 polled by the alliance of the two Congresses. The margin here stands at 36,69,260 votes.

The CPI (M) has once again emerged as the single largest winner in terms of votes polled this year. In winning 143 seats this year, the CPI (M) polled 1,33,98,680 votes. This translates into 36.59 per cent of valid votes polled, slightly ahead of the 1996 figure of 36.40 per cent.

The CPI has won seven seats (it had won six back in 1996) with a vote share of 6,55,171 or 1.79 per cent.

The Forward Bloc has won 25 seats this year against 21 seats in 1996, and its vote share stands at 5.65 per cent representing 20,67,820 votes polled in its favour.

The RSP has managed to win 17 seats in 2001, one less than that in 1996, with a vote share of 3.43 per cent which represents 12,56,948 votes.

In 1996, the Pradesh Congress had managed to win 82 seats. This time, as the acknowledged junior partner of the Congress-alliance, it has managed 26, with a vote share of 7.97 per cent, translating into 29,16,858 votes. The Trinamul Congress, the cynosure of the corporate media, has polled 1,12,29,170 votes or 30.67 per cent of votes polled.

The alliance of PDS, NCP, and dissident Congress groups has polled a vote share of 0.61 per cent representing 2,22,108 votes. The deposits of all but two of the 100 candidates put up by the PDS were forfeited and the list includes all its office-bearers.

Independent candidates and others have managed to poll more votes than the PDS-alliance, at 22,49,925 votes with a percentage share of 6.14 per cent.

Of the rural seats, 216 in number, the Left Front has emerged winners in 163. The CPI (M) has won 114, CPI 7, Forward Bloc 20, RSP 15, WBSP 4, MFB 1 and DSP 1.

The Congress-alliance has got 44 seats, the Pradesh Congress winning 17, ten less than that won by Trinamul Congress. SUCI has won two seats, and Independents and others 4.

All four seats in the hill area of the Darjeeling district have gone to the GNLF. Of the 64 seats traditionally identified as urban constituencies, the Left Front has won 30, and the Congress-Trinamul Congress alliance 34. The CPI (M) has won 24, Forward Bloc 5, RSP 1, Trinamul Congress 27 and Congress 7.

The Left Front has continued to win the bulk of the seats that are reserved constituencies for Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST). The Left Front has emerged victorious in 48 out of a total of 59 SC constituencies. The CPI(M) has won 37, CPI 1, Forward Bloc 5, RSP 4, and WBSP 1. Trinamul Congress has won 7, and the Congress 3, with the SUCI winning one seat.

In the ST constituencies, the Left Front has bagged 16 of the 17 seats, with Congress winning one seat. Jharkhandis and Kamptapuris along with the communal BJP failed to secure a single seat in the 2001 Assembly polls.