The cracks are showing

The cracks in the Left Front are beginning to show. The Forward Bloc, a key constituent of the Front in West Bengal, is going it alone in Tripura and in the municipal polls in West Bengal. Says Ashok Ghosh, West Bengal State Secretary of the Forward Bloc: “The CPI(M) has gone out of its mind in its bid to placate big business.”

The Bloc, with only 23 MLAs in the West Bengal Assembly, does not pose any threat to the survival of the state government. But in the last Assembly elections in 2006, the party (CPI(M) alone polled 36.9 per cent of the popular vote, much less than the Congress and the Trinamool Congress, which, together, received 41.2 per cent. Since the Left Front and its leaders owe their national prominence to the support base mainly in West Bengal, the simmering discontent can have a major impact on national politics.

— Ritwik Mukherjee