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| Left Front keeps fingers crossed for November bypolls |
| BS Reporter / New Delhi Oct 17, 2009, 00:05 IST |
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The bad run of Left parties is likely to continue in the upcoming assembly by-polls in West Bengal. 10 seats are going for polls on 7 November. “We don’t have much expectation from this phase of by-election. We will go to the people with our issues and let people decide,” said Nilotpal Basu, a prominent member of the CPI(M) Central Committee. Another CC member, Hannan Mollah said, “The situation has not improved much in our favour.”
Elections will be held in Kalchini (ST), Rajganj (SC), Sujapur, Goalpokhar, Bongaon, Contai South, Egra, Serampore, Alipore and Belgachia East on November 7. “It will be tough contest against the combined force of Trinamool and Congress,” added Mollah. These results, however, will not alter the power equations as the Left is enjoying a comfortable majority in the assembly.
In Bengal, the Left parties have been facing a series of drubbing for the past two years. In the panchayet, municipal corporations and Lok Sabha polls, the Left has been continuously losing ground to the Congress and Trinamool Alliance. The upcoming assembly by-polls are unlikely to change this tide.
Out of the 10 seats that go for polls in Bengal, the Left got only three in 2006. The Trinamool Congress and Congress, although fought separately in 2006, won in the other seven seats. According to the Left’s internal assessment, it will be “extremely difficult” to wrest any of these seats.
Although there are signs of strain between the Congress and Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee, the two sides have amicably agreed to a seat-sharing arrangement for the by-polls adding further woe for the Left. The Congress has fielded candidates in three seats while the Trinamool will contest the other seven seats.
For the CPI(M), the biggest challenge is to secure the seat of the late Transport Minister Subhas Chakraborty. The party has fielded his widow Ramola Chakraborty in the Belgachia East seat. But the Left, depending heavily on the sympathy factor, is keeping in mind that in 2006, Chakraborty had won the seat with a margin of just 1,500 votes.
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