With the results clearly indicating a landslide victory for the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress in West Bengal the pertinent question that arises is whether the Left and the Congress will continue to be allies or not.
Well, it was never a secret that the Left had joined hands with the Congress in West Bengal because they were apprehensive about their victory and their fears were proved correct. If we see, then the ideological difference between the two parties is not a hard thing to etch. Political history tells us that the two parties are dead against each other. In South India, they are dead against each other. Is this the reason why the people in West Bengal could not bestow faith upon the compromised friendship? Or was it the Mamata magic that created an illusion even this time?
However, it is important to mention that the Left and Congress ally did have an impact in some of the Trinamool bastions. In Kolkata, the Jadavpur constituency had always been filled with Left sympathisers but last time the wind swayed towards Mamata Banerjee who had a sweeping victory from the constituency. But this time the wind has changed again. It seems that the Left candidate Sujan Chakraborty has been declared victorious at a time when his party has not faired well overall.
In Malda, the Trinamool has been restrained to a pretty low score and the Left has regained their ground. This probably was because of the recent violence that broke out in Malda in which the people of Malda were not much happy with the government's way of handling the situation. Similarly, in Dakshin Dinajpur too, Trinamool has not performed well.
But an overall victory, no matter what the stats are, is a victory. No one looks for the run rate at which a match is won but the final result is all that matters. Our discussion is, however, not on this line.
Coming back to the fate of the new friends — Left and Congress — it seems that the friendship was rather a compromise to attempt for a victory in West Bengal.
If we discuss the performance of these two parties then the Congress had more to give rather than the Left Front. In places where the CPIM wanted a little push, the Congress comfortably provided that but the Left party, however, could not respond in the same way and their support proved to be of no help to the Congress where they wanted to regain grounds.
Shying away from the fact that the people have completely rejected the Left in Bengal will not take us anywhere. The people of West Bengal can be true communists from within but the wounds of the 34 years' Left rule in Bengal and the outlined tyranny is so deep that bestowing faith upon the Left is near impossible.
So, will the two ideologically different parties still continue to be friends or will there be infighting among the various lobbies of the two parties or will the 'friendship' be tactfully kept away from the eyes of media and slowly forgotten is the question. Till then, I guess wasting time in analysing a compromised friendship of two failed political parties will be a waste. Rather, its time to Go Green again, or rather painting blue!! (All puns intended).
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