An electoral avalanche marked the resounding victory of Miss Mamata Banerjee's Trinamul Congress (TG) routing the 35- year old fortress of West Bengal Left Front (LF) last week. Affectionately called Didi, who studied Islamic history at the ' Varsity and lives a frugal life, told the media after the win, 'People are my heart's biggest strength. Today I remember Rabindranath Tagore, Kazi Nazrul Islam and Swami Vivekananda.' The TG supremo Mamata Banerjee is scheduled to take oath of office as the first woman chief minister of West Bengal today (Friday, May 20) at Raj Bhavan in Kolkata. Nephew of revolutionary Bengali poet Sukanta, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee took over from his mentor Jyoti Basu when the latter stepped down in 2000 , and led the LF to victory. After the landslide triumph with 235 out of 294 seats in the assembly election in 2006 a complacent LF's policy blunders began. The humiliating defeat of the LF is a severe blow to the CPM and Left forces of India. The defeat is an expected outcome if one considers the cause and effects of LF's acts. The CPM's huge mass base in West Bengal and seven election victories in a row had made it the biggest Left stronghold in India as well as in the entire non-socialist world. Socialism has undergone evolution and social democrats throughout the industrialised world espousing democratic socialism have promoted nationalisation of manufacturing; and public spending has seen a large, long- term rise. Ensuring people's rights and fulfilling their bare minimum demands constitute the basic norm of socialism then the LF comrades activities conspicuously negated the masses their birth right to own and cultivate their croplands handed down from their ancestors as inheritance. Singur was another scene of public wrath against Tata' s proposed Nano plant. What can be a more cruel betrayal than policy of acquiring their agricultural land by force? The March 14 , 2007 massacre at Nandigram perpetrated by West Bengal's Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led LF government, observed the World Socialist Web Site (WSWS), was outspokenly condemned by some of India's best-known leading Indian intellectuals many of them supporters of the LF. The WSWS reports that on the orders of the LF government, heavily armed police stormed the Nandigram area with the aim of stamping out protests against the West Bengal government's plans to requisition 10 ,000 acres of land for a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) to be developed by the Indonesian- based Salim Group. The police shot dead at least 14 villagers and wounded 70 more. The wanton massacre of peasants on behalf of a transnational corporation notorious for the comfy relations its founder developed with the murderous Suharto dictatorship provoked a chorus of disapproval across India. The Nandigram massacre came as a cruel shock. The Communalism Watch blogspot on October 17 , 2007 decried the CPI(M) government for the murder of Rizwanur Rahman in Calcutta. Rizwan and Priyanka Todi, both of right age, fell in love and got married, duly and legally on August 18 , 2007. Rizwan came of a Muslim family, and Priyanka of a Hindu. Priyanka moved out to live with Rizwan, her husband. Apprehending interference from Priyanka's father, the couple sent copies of their marriage certificate to the Police Commissioner and DC (Calcutta South), both in the police headquarters at Lalbazar in addition to concerned police stations. Alas! eventually Rizwan was found dead and the police said that he had committed suicide. The circumstantial evidences however, stood against Rizwan's suicide, and pointed palpably to a murder. It was alleged that the LF regime was complicit in that ugly incident that reminded West Bengal Muslims of Hinduttwabadi Narendra Modi's bloody hand in Muslim Massacre in Gujarat in 2001. Will LF learn from its ignominious defeat? Decades back as a young Congress party worker Mamata's raison d'etre was to oust the Left in her state. In her first reaction, Mamata said, 'This verdict will bring joy to the people of Bengal'. Now it is to be seen how well Miss Banerjee governs. People of neighbouring Bangladesh will wish her Godspeed, successful journey ahead and expect Mamata to use her good offices in resolving Dhaka's various outstanding unresolved issues with Delhi.
