Acknowledging that Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee will be the greatest challenge in the Assembly Polls in 2011, CPI general secretary A.B. Bardhan on Monday said that the Left Front has lost the confidence of a section of people in Bengal due to its land acquisition policy.
“The lands should not have been taken away from the farmers in the name of industry. This generated a feeling among the poor peasants that the Left which had once distributed the lands was now taking it away from them,” Mr Bardhan said.
He also added that “wrong campaign” against the Left Front government had caused a damage to its reputation that it had earned for the land reforms. The CPI general secretary, however, ruled out the possibility of any change of guard before the all crucial Assembly polls in the state. “Changing leader is not in any way an acceptable idea that we will adopt. I think changing A and putting in B is not correct. Changing leaders in mid-stream when you are approaching the bank is not good. It’s obvious we would fight with the present lot of leaders in the state taking her (read Trinamul Congress chief) as a great challenge,” Mr Bardhan emphasised.
The ruling Left Front which has suffered back-to-back poll debacles from the Lok Sabha election onwards should learn the right lesson from the electoral results, go back to the people and take proper corrective steps, he said.
“Yes, the government is now taking steps. My only regret is that it is pretty late. It should have been taken earlier,” Mr Bardhan added.
Significantly, Mr Bardhan evaded a query on the state’s chances of getting its first woman chief minister after the Assembly elections. Guessing the latent reference to the Trinamul Congress chief, Mr Bardhan dodged the insinuation saying: “There are ladies in the Left also. They are also very competent.”
Despite conceding that the Left has lost the confidence of a section of the people, Mr Bardhan did appear to be a bit optimistic as he claimed: “If Left goes back to the people and takes corrective steps, it can still do a miracle.”