CPI(M)’s internal findings reveal booth-level shortcomings in Bengal

Kolkata, July 31 (IANS) An internal report of CPI(M) in West Bengal has revealed some major lapses in the organisational network, especially, at the booth level which could have led to the party’s disastrous results in the Lok Sabha elections in the state.Despite the several campaign programmes held jointly with Congress with whom it had a seat-sharing agreement, the Left Front including CPI(M) ended with zero seats, while Congress could win one constituency.Party insiders said that as per the internal organisational report findings, CPI(M) was not able to field polling agents in at least 14 per cent of the total booths in the state in the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls.The report also indicates party agents leaving the counting centres during the early hours when trends started surfacing.Party insiders further said that the internal report has also highlighted some possible reasons behind pathetic results both in the rural and urban pockets of the state. While on one hand, the increasing communication gap between peasants and sharecropper sections was the reason for the electoral disaster in the rural belts, in the case of urban pockets the apathy of educated urban middle-class Bengali society prompted that disaster, as per the findings“For 34 years from 1977 to 2011, the peasants, working class and educated urban middle-class Bengali society had been the strong base of our party in West Bengal. It is unfortunate that we are now facing maximum erosion of support in those bases. Unless some pragmatic programmes are adopted to regain that lost dedication, times will be tougher for us in the coming days,” admitted a state committee member of the party who refused to be named.At the same time, the internal report has also identified some tactical flaws in the party campaign strategy in the recent polls, especially the one related to different welfare schemes of the state government. Some over-enthusiastic party activists launched scathing attacks on social media describing such schemes as “petty dole projects” without realising that such schemes often have a positive impact on the financially backward sections, especially women voters.–IANSsrc/dpb