After the results were declared on May 30 in West Bengal'sfive municipality elections and byelections in 398 Gram Panchayat, 94 Panchayat Samiti and 24 Zilla Parishad seats, it was found that CPI(M) had lost Panskura municipality to opposition parties. In two other municipalities i.e. Dhupguri and Durgapur, they could retain their majority with great difficulties as in both the municipalities their number of seats has been reduced. In fact, in all other constituencies, the number of seats won by CPM in 2002 has been reduced in this election (See table).
Although the total number of seats they have lost is just 11, yet the trend of losing their support base is important in this context. This trend was prevailing in all the five municipalities. Trinamool leader Mamata Banerjee hailed the Opposition victory at Panskura as yet another proof that ?one-on-one contests are necessary to dislodge the CPM?.
In this context the comment made by the CPM central party general secretary Prakash Karat is very significant. He said, ?State party had already said that we were going to lose the election in Panskura. Congress, Trinamool and BJP had formed a Grand Alliance and they had defeated us. I would definitely bring this matter to the notice of the UPA leaders?. It simply means that they are going to caution the Congress and at the same time threaten them whether they could continue in power without their support. It is a fact that in Panskura, Congress, Trinamool and BJP had formed an undeclared alliance and it worked. No opposition vote was split in Panskura. So there was a damn defeat for CPM.
In West Bengal, there are 49,140 Gram Panchayat seats. In the last election, which took place on May 11, 2003, BJP put up 7,566 candidates and among them 1,612 candidates won the election. The vote-share of BJP was 21.30 per cent. There are 8,500 Panchayat Samiti seats. BJP fought for 1,254 seats and won 199 seats in the last election held in 2003. In this poll the share of BJP vote was 12.60 per cent. In the same election in 2003, the BJP put up 134 candidates for the total 713 Zilla Parishad seats and won only two seats. Vote percentage was only 1.49 per cent. In the present byelection of five municipalities, BJP got one seat in Dhupguri and among 398 Gram Panchayat seats they got eight seats by contesting 51 seats. In addition to this, one independent candidate has also won the election with BJP support. In Panchayat Samiti, they contested 24 seats out of 94 seats and won only one seat. There was by-election in 24 Zilla Parishad seats where BJP did not get any seat.
So, it is not proper to place BJP as ?politically irrelevant? only for the reason that they have no representation in West Bengal Assembly.
