A ray of hope for the Left parties, what is the benefit of doubling the vote share?
Kolkata (IANS). Panchayat elections have been held recently in West Bengal. The dismal performance of the CPI(M)-led Left Front in this election has once again raised the question whether the communist forces, which ruled the state for 34 years from 1977 to 2011, are becoming ineffective now?
As the results show, the Left Front has not been able to secure second place in any of the three tiers of the panchayat system. It ranked third only at the lower level of gram panchayat, while in the remaining two levels of panchayat samiti and zilla parishad, it was fourth after Congress, despite contesting more seats between the Left Front, the Congress and the All India Secular Front (AISF). stayed in place
However, the optimistic CPI(M) leadership has found a silver lining in the vote share improvement of the Left Front-Congress-AISF alliance in the 2021 West Bengal assembly elections. In the 2023 rural body polls, the trio’s vote share has more than doubled to 21 per cent from 2021’s 10 per cent. Proportionately, despite emerging second in all three tiers of panchayat systems in terms of the number of seats won by the BJP, its vote percentage share has seen a sharp decline.
The BJP’s vote share in the 2023 civic polls has come down from 38 per cent in 2021 to 22 per cent. The CPI(M) leadership has also released figures on how the Congress-Left Front-AISF alliance’s vote share has increased in by-elections to five municipal corporations, 86 municipalities, one Lok Sabha and three assembly constituencies since the 2021 assembly elections.
In a statement issued soon after the results of the rural civic body polls were declared, the CPI(M) leadership said, “Despite large-scale violence by the ruling party, booth capturing and bogus nominations filed by them in the panchayat polls, the Left Front and its Increase in vote share for allies has proved to be the major opposition in the state.”
However, according to political observers, there has been some juggling in the increase in vote share figures presented by the CPI(M) leadership. From the combined vote share percentage of the Left Front-Congress-AISF alliance, it is not clear by how much the individual vote share for the Left Front has increased. Rather, the number of seats won in the three tiers of the panchayat system suggests that the Congress has gained the most in this coalition system. This is when the Congress is contesting fewer seats as part of the pact.
It is almost certain that the Congress and the Left Front will strike a pre-poll alliance and seat-sharing pact for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. But, political observers believe that there is every possibility that the Congress will benefit more from the Left Front next year as well.
