The CPM expected a tough fight in Belgachia (East) constituency. But it did not expect defeat in a seat which fell vacant after the death of its leader Subhas Chakraborty.

Before the bypoll, the party had the report that it would have to prepare for a tough fight to retain the seat. For this reason, it had decided to field Subhas Chakraborty’s wife Ramola Chakraborty to woo sympathy votes for the party.

Despite a star-studded campaign and high hopes of the CPM state unit, Ramola lost to Trinamool candidate Sujit Bose, a former follower of her husband in the area. “A wave for change is still working, we could not fight it out,” said Ramola.

Bose was upbeat. “The way the CPM is ruling the state, the mandate is a befitting reply to them,” he said.

One of the reasons doing the rounds immediately after the results, according to party sources, is that a large number of Left voters did not turn up to vote.

A primary analysis of two constituencies, Belgachia (East) and Alipore, indicates toward this. In 2006, CPM candidate Subhas Chakraborty got 91,273 votes whereas Ramola got 73,329 votes this time. On the other hand, the Congress-Trinamool combine’s vote in 2006 was 98,379 while this time it has got 101,689 votes.

“At least eight per cent of the voters who voted for us in 2006 did not come to polling stations for the November 7 by-election,” said a senior CPM leader. “We will have to analyse, but primarily we think that a section of Left voters is frustrated at our poll prospects following the debacle in the recent Lok Sabha polls.”

... contd.