The Bengal civic and municipality poll results clearly indicate that the Trinamul Congress will need to strike a grand alliance with the Congress to wrest the state from the Marxists in the forthcoming Assembly elections.
Despite the landslide victory in Kolkata corporation, which comprises of 11 Assembly seats within Kolkata, the Trinamul’s performance in the 81 municipalities remains far below expectation.
Of the 81 municipalities (47 Assembly segments), Trinamul has managed 27, Left 18 and Congress seven with nearly 29 wards showing a hung verdict. Despite new gains, the Trinamul failed to sweep it’s bastion, North 24-Paraganas.
During the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, the Trinamul won all the five seats in the North 24-Paraganas. The party was expecting a sweep in this region in the municipality polls. However, of the 21 wards in North 24-Paraganas, Trinamul has managed 12 and the Left parties nine. “This outcome is a matter of concern for us,” a Trinamul functionary said.
Hung verdict in over 20 of the 81 municipalities is also a clear pointer that Trinamul would need an alliance to defeat the Left parties.
Analysing the scenario, he cautioned that victory in Kolkata corporation is far from being a “referendum to the Assembly polls. “In the Assembly polls, the real fight would be in the districts. Here we should not allow a triangular contest,” he said. For him, in a triangular fight, the Congress could “severely damage the Trinamul prospects.”
Referring to the Lok Sabha polls, he pointed out that of the 42 parliamentary constituencies in the state, the grand alliance between the Congress and Trinamul had managed to capture 25 berths, reducing the Left to only 15 seats.
It was also recalled that the central leadership of the CPI(M) committed a blunder by relying on the outcome of the 2006 Assembly polls. Led by Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, the Left won a whopping 235 of the 294 Assembly berths, while Trinamul got 30 and Congress 21. It was claimed in the last Assembly polls that the Congress had damaged Trinamul prospects in over 100 seats.
“The moment Congress and Trinamul got together, the Left lost heavily,” the Trinamul functionary added.
It was further argued that even if Trinamul won all the 11 Assembly seats within Kolkata, it might not be able to score big outside. Moreover, with nearly a year to go for the Assembly polls, there are chances of the Left parties consolidating.