The election results show that the Left has suffered further erosion in its support base in Nandigram since the 2008 panchyat polls in the area. Nandigram is an Assembly segment under theTamluk Lok Sabha seat.

CPM leader Laxman Seth had held the seat for two terms but this time he lost to Trinamool’s Suvendu Adhikary by a margin of over 1,20,000 votes.  Nandigram has been the Waterloo of the Left as from here Bengal’s politics began to take a different shape.

The panchayat polls had indicated, for the first time in decades, a shifting support base of the Left following the proposed land acquisition and later the police firing in March 2007 that claimed 14 lives. Subsequently, in the January 2009 Assembly by-elections in Nandigram, Trinamool candidate Frioza Bibi — the mother of a firing victim— had polled 93,022 votes, defeating CPI candidate Paramanda Bharati by the margin of 39,551 votes.

 The LS results show the Left has not been able to woo back its support base. Seth secured around 50,000 votes in Nandigram Assembly segment, less than what Bharti had got in the by-polls. In comparison, Adhikary polled 1,05,000 votes in the area, nearly 13,000 more than Frioza Bibi had got.

Adhikary, hence, managed a lead of nearly 54,000 votes from Nandigram Assembly segment over Seth.

 In panchayat polls, the Trinamool had secured nearly 81,000 votes in Nandigram and captured three out of four Zilla Parisad seats, defeating the Left candidates. The Left’s share in rural polls was 69,000 votes, which dipped to 51,000 in the LS elections.

... contd.