West Bengal (WB) Assembly polls scheduled in six phases is beginning from April 18, 2011. For the first time in four decades Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) led Left Front, which won a comprehensive victory in the last Assembly elections five years ago and has been in power for almost 34 years is clearly under pressure.

CPI (M) has lot to worry about: increasing popularity of Trinamool Congress (TMC) and its alliance with the Congress, the Maoist endorsement of TMC’s policies, and its own poor performance in the 2008 local bodies’ elections and the 2009 Parliament elections.

Surveys over last few months have predicted largest number of seats in the Assembly for TMC in the forthcoming elections.

TMC has successfully capitalised on Government’s land acquisition policy. The State had to bow before popular protests over this issue, at Nandigram and Singur. It eroded Left’s vote-bank among the minorities and the deprived sections. TMC won 15 out of 16 Gram Panchayats in the Singur block in the 2008 Local Bodies’ election.

In the 2008 Local Bodies’ election, the TMC also won in East Midnapore and South 24-Parganas Districts. In the 2009 Parliament elections as well, TMC cornered 19 out of the total of 42 seats in the State.

Given the trend, TMC could emerge as the largest party in the elections, even without support from the Congress.

At least there is no doubt that the West Bengal election 2011 is going to deliver election results never seen before.

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