Sept. 15: The winds of change blowing across south Bengal have roared into the north, smashing the 28-year-old Left redoubt in Siliguri and extending its losing streak as the Assembly elections draw closer.
The Trinamul-Congress combine today captured the Siliguri Municipal Corporation (SMC) — a feat that prompted Mamata Banerjee to speak of the “last nail” in the Left coffin and the CPM to lament the inability of “development” to stem the slide.
The victory enabled the Opposition to dislodge the Left from the civic body for the first time since 1981 when the front formed the board of the Siliguri Municipality. The Left continued to be in power from 1994, too, when the municipality was upgraded to a municipal corporation.
The dent that became evident was so deep that the Left tally dived from 36 last time to 17 now. (See chart)
“People want paribartan (change) and what was reflected in the Lok Sabha elections found a similar reflection in the results of the SMC elections as well,” said Trinamul leader Partha Chatterjee, who had camped in Siliguri for several days. “The people now want the Left to go and us to take over.”
The CPM’s Siliguri strongman, Asok Bhattacharya, who won the last Assembly elections from his pocket borough with the largest margin in the state, conceded as much today. He said: “The slogan of paribartan overtook our slogan of development that has taken place in Siliguri. Stability and development, it seems, have given ground to change.”
In defeat and despondence, development became almost a dirty word. “It’s now clear that development cannot ensure everything. There was enough development in Siliguri,” CPM state secretary Biman Bose said.
In Delhi, Mamata was looking ahead. “We have been winning every election, so the indication is clear enough… I don’t think the government should stay even for a day. It’s a great victory. If they have lajja, ghrina, bhoy (shame, hatred and fear), they will move and let people work,” she said.
The stirrings of change were palpable in Siliguri in June itself during an election to a body equivalent to a zilla parishad when the Congress opened its account and snatched three of the seven seats from the CPM. But in the SMC polls, the Congress-Trinamul alliance threw up far better results despite the hitch between the two parties over seat sharing for the Sealdah and Bowbazar Assembly bypolls.
Alluding to this unity, Congress leader and Union minister Salman Khursheed said in Calcutta: “It is this unity between the Congress and Trinamul that will see these parties to victory in the 2011 Assembly polls.”
But the most significant gain from this election has been for Trinamul, which for the first time made its presence felt decisively in north Bengal. Trinamul will almost be an equal partner by winning 14 of the 23 seats that it contested in the SMC polls, one less than that of the Congress.
The victory in the CPM bastion has come through without another familiar factor: Mamata did not campaign for the polls even once. In contrast, chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had campaigned there.
CPM leaders said though they had expected the Opposition to make inroads, they did not think the Congress-Trinamul combine would win the polls.
Source : The Telegraph.
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