After panchayat poll drubbing, CPM, partners lose Bengal civic bodies

The results of the June 29 elections to 13 civic bodies saw the Opposition Trinamool Congress grab three municipalities from the CPM while the Congress took away the fourth. In all, the Opposition stormed to power in eight civic bodies, leaving the CPM and its partners in control of five -- the CPM retained three and the RSP and Forward Bloc one each.

Elections to 13 of the 127 municipalities were held on completion of the five-year term. In the 2003 elections, the CPM and its partners won 10 municipalities and the Opposition only three.

The CPM's Bengal leadership, shaken by the recent electoral reverses, has been warning the party top brass not to precipitate matters by pulling down the UPA Government over the Indo-US nuclear deal.

The civic body election results show that even in municipalities the CPM managed to retain, its vote share had eroded considerably. The party lost Guskara municipality -- for decades, considered a CPM bastion -- in Burdwan to the Trinamool Congress. Midnapore municipality too went to the Trinamool Congress.

As news of the reverses came in, senior leaders at the CPM headquarters on Alimuddin Street remained in their rooms. Benoy Konar, the veteran CPM leader, was the first to admit: "The results are bad. We accept the people's verdict... We could not explain (our position) to the people."

CPM Lok Sabha MP Mohammed Salim said the results may be analysed differently. "Even though I don't think (general) elections will be held before January-February next year, we have to prepare for it," Salim said. Referring to the political developments in Delhi, he said: "A clear picture will not emerge before a week."

Another CPM leader confessed: "We just can't understand why people in villages and urban areas are voting against us. Protests against land acquisition should not have affected urban voters. There must be some common reason that has alienated rural and urban voters."