Climate change: CPI(M) hit byhuge vote erosion in panchayat polls

The CPI(M) was faced with a huge erosion in its rural vote bank, with the trickle of defeats indicated during Wednesday’s counting of the panchayat polls turning into a flood on Thursday when the numbers for the lower tiers emerged.

A stunned CPI(M) sought to explain away the erosion as a backlash against corruption at the grassroot level. The anti-incumbency factor, the party argued, had been catalysed into an explosive backlash by the Nandigram land acquisition fiasco.

“We will review whether the functioning of our Panchayats is to blame for the results,” said Biman Bose, CPI(M) state secretary and Left Front chairman. “There may have been some deviations.”

Political circles said that the people want to see Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee as a genuine opposition to the CPI(M), as reflected in the results from Coochbehar in the north to the Sunderbans in the south.

For example, in north Bengal, a traditional Congress belt where Mamata does not have any presence whatsoever, the Trinamool has won two panchayat samitis, which are the block-level bodies in the middle tier of the three-tier system.

A jubilant Mamata, who had not expected the such results in the face of the CPI(M)’s tradition of rigging, said: “The results show how much the people are angry with them. The people have taught them a lesson, but they never learn.”

Till late in the evening, counting showed that the Left Front had won 1,514 of the 3,220 gram Panchayats in the state. GPs are the bodies at the lowest level, each with varying numbers of members.

The opposition has won 1,283 GPs, with the Trinamool bagging the lion’s share.

In the 2003 panchayat elections, the opposition had bagged around 917 GPs and the Left Front 2,303.

Results for 312 GPs, all in South 24 Parganas, were yet to come in when this copy was filed. But most of these GPs are expected to go to the Trinamool, which has already taken the Zilla Parishad for the district, so the final tally of GPs will show the Left and the Opposition in a 50:50 position.

Of the 329 panchayat samitis, the Left Front had won 284 samitis and the opposition taken together just 45 in 2003.

This time, the Left Front’s tally has shrunk by nearly a 100 to 189, while the opposition has gained an equal number to raise its tally to 140.

A preliminary analysis shows a serious vote erosion for the CPI(M) at all levels. It has lost the marginal seats, and reported marginal victories at seats won by huge margins in 2003.

“It will be very difficult to regain our position, because we have never seen such an erosion at the grassroot level,” a senior CPI(M) leader said. “There is no easy explanation or single reason.”

He pointed out that the CPI(M) had lost in minority areas, in scheduled caste and tribe areas, and even in locations near urban pockets.

The CPI(M) had to fight for its life in 13 districts, and can breathe easy in only four —- Purulia, Bankura, Burdwan and Jalpaiguri.

CPI(M) sources said they had never witnessed such a backlash since the party came to power in 1977.

“This debacle was at the booth-level and cannot be the result of a just one issue,” a senior CPI(M) leader said. “It was the outcome of accumulated anger.”

Bose said: “We have to discuss why this grievance accumulated to such an extent?Our arrogance, ego and deviations — we must study if these were factors.”