Left’s political existence at stake in WB

Once invincible CPI(M) led Left Front, which had kept aside its ‘ideological convictions’ to align with its one-time foe Congress to oust the Trinamool Congress regime in Bengal, is the ‘biggest loser’ in the polls as its tally dropped from 62 seats in 2011 to just 32 seats in the recently ended Assembly elections. 

“If we can’t check the further erosion of our vote bank then we are ought to face serious questions over the very existence of CPI(M) and Left in Bengal. We have not only failed to gauge the mood and pulse of the people but also to regain our lost strength in last five years,” CPI(M) politburo member and former MP Hanan Mollah told PTI. 

“We tried to forge an alliance with Congress in order to stop the division of anti-TMC votes. It has rather gone against us. The people didn’t accept this alliance. We cannot deny that people have voted for Mamata Banerjee and the TMC in large numbers, irrespective of the fact that there has been issues of unemployment, corruption and lack of industrialisation.”