Soon, Left will have nothing to lose

NEW DELHI: The zeal for change appears to be continuing in West Bengal with the Left Front on Tuesday facing yet another electoral drubbing ��� this time in the Siliguri municipal polls. The Trinamool Congress-Congress alliance wrested the board winning 29 of the 47 seats in the Left turf.

Defeated in the only municipal corporation of North Bengal after a gap of 27 years, the Left Front managed to retain just 17 seats. An independent backed by the Trinamool Congress-Congress alliance won a seat. The Left Front has been winning the polls in the corporation since 1981.

The election outcome spells more woes for the chief minister as he was himself in-charge of the party organisation in Darjeeling, under which Siliguri falls. The Left���s presence in Darjeeling was confined to the plains as its influence in the hill areas of the district had already waned.

In the outgoing Siliguri municipal corporation board, the Left Front had a whopping majority of 36 seats, Trinamool Congress just five, Congress four, BJP one and independent one. The Mayor of the earlier board Munsi Nurul Islam has managed to win, though his deputy Dilip Ray lost the election, which saw an 80% turnout on Sunday.

The loss of the Siliguri municipal corporation board adds to the anguish of the Left Front government, which has been facing a series of electoral debacles. Mamata Banerjee���s Trinamool Congress has been making inroads into several red bastions. The trend has caused concern within the Left over the outcome of the assembly elections in West Bengal and Kerala in 2011.

Though Kerala has had a tradition of voting for a change every election, the Left Front has ruled West Bengal for over three decades.

The Siliguri civic poll was significant for the Left���s battered morale in the state. The Trinamool Congress and the Congress alliance had emerged victorious in recent panchayat elections after the Lok Sabha elections which saw the Left���s worst ever performance.