People's Democracy

Bengal CPI (M) Shall Review Civic Poll Results

B Prasant

BENGAL CPI (M) shall go into the details of the electoral reversal it faced in the civic polls 2010, despite the fact that there has been a slight if not perceptible improvement in the vote share and seats won this time compared to the Lok Sabha elections of the past year.  The Bengal CPI (M) and the Bengal Left Front have felicitated the people for their participation in the elections and have also humbly accepted the popular electoral verdict.

Biman Basu, Bengal CPI (M) secretary briefed the media at the Muzaffar Ahmad Bhavan on  June 2, 2010.  Biman Basu who also heads the Bengal Left Front as its chairman, noted that the Left Front ‘has not done well in the elections, whereas the principal opposition, the Trinamul Congress has performed well,’ causing the CPI (M) and the Left Front to conduct a review of the results towards fixing the tasks ahead.

It would be found out if there had been any error in the performance of day-to-day contact with the masses.  It would also be looked at from the point of view of the conduct of the campaign-movement, with special note of the fact whether the campaign ‘had passed over the heads of the masses in the process.’

The CPI (M) and the LF have done marginally if not significantly better than in the past Lok Sabha polls.  The performance was less than that of the CPI (M) and the LF in the 2005 municipal elections.  The following are the brief details of the election result. The complete statistical picture would be available shortly. 

In 2009, during the Lok Sabha polls, the LF had won 525 municipal wards with a vote share of 29.73 per cent.  This year it won 603 wards with a vote share of 33.67 per cent.  In municipalities like Jamuria in Burdwan, or Englishbazar in Maldah the vote share has increased as it has done at Kalna in Burdwan despite losing the latter to the principal opposition outfit. 

Biman Basu assured the media that there could be no question of advancing the dates for the 2011 assembly polls based on the civic poll results as a mere 17 per cent of the electorate of Bengal had exercised their franchise this time around.  The Left Front would have no role to play in the ‘hung’ municipal boards.

The following results were obtained in the civic polls 2010.

Total 81 civic bodies    

                                                                                    Left Front   16                                                     

Trinamul Congress 25

Pradesh Congress  07

‘Hung’        31

Kolkata – 141 wards

Wardwise results

Left Front              33

Trinamul Congress 95

Pradesh Congress  10

BJP        03

Bidhannagar (Salt Lake) – 25

Wardwise results

Left Front       09

Trinamul Congress 16