Compromised ‘friendship’ did not work in Bengal

The hands down  defeat  of  Left Front and Congress alliance throughout the state has clearly shown  that the people did not accept the “unholy” alliance of the two.

The result has been disastrous. The Left Front bagged 32 seats,  almost half of the seats it got in 2011 and Congress got 44 seats,  just  two seats more than what it had received in  that year.

From   the very first day it was a friendship of suspicion. Neither the CPIM’s  Central Committee nor the Congress high command   had approved of the alliance and termed  it as a tie up of secular democratic forces. However, people did not like this  dubious and selfish move to fool them and punished the conspirators.

Both Congress and Left leaders thought that their results would be extremely poor if they fought separately and were looking for a way out. The solution was provided by the owner of a vernacular daily along with a television channel who convinced them that the alliance would come to power if the Election Commission could be influenced  along systematic canard against Mamata Banerjee that would be spread by the media. 

Top CPIM and Congress leaders like Sitaram Yechury and Adhir Chowdhury met Election Commission of India officials and convinced them that law and order situation had deteriorated in Bengal and 900 companies of Central Forces should be sent to conduct the election. The ECI obliged them   by sending  adequate central force personnel and  held the election in six phases.  The alliance based their logic on parameters like BJP vote bank would come to Left Front and  there would be cent per cent vote transfer between Congress and Left Front. However, it did not work and people’s mandate went against them.