Coalition gains confidence, Trinamool worried in West Bengal

The presence of gun-toting central security forces personnel have given the Left-Congress coalition a confidence to believe after four phases of polling that they just might be able to clinch the elections from the ruling party Trinamool Congress.

The CPM leaders exuded confidence at a time when an internal assessment by the Trinamool has left the ruling party leaders concerned.

“Based on our experience till date, I’m confident we’ll come to power by winning 200 seats. We’ll score a double century and the current ruling party will not cross the three-digit figure,” CPM state secretary Surjya Kanta Mishra told reporters.

He expressed satisfaction over the Election Commission’s role in ensuring “mostly free and fair” polling after the fourth phase of polling on Monday. Mishra, fighting to retain his seat at Narayangarh in West Midnapore, is reportedly the coalition’s chief ministerial candidate. “We hope that the EC and the central forces will continue to play a similar role in the remaining two phases to ensure no one can terrorise voters,” Mishra said.

He was particularly pleased with voters “who came out resisting all attempts by the Trinamool to unleash terror”.

“The ruling party could indulge in malpractices in only around 1% of more than 12,000 booths where polling took place on Monday,” he said, adding that the Trinamool “made all possible preparations to intimidate voters”.

“They had kept everything ready, from arms to infiltrating polling districts with antisocial elements from elsewhere, but failed because of spontaneous resistance from people,” said the CPM state secretary.

All is, however, not well at the Trinamool camp, where an internal assessment after four phases of polling has left the ruling party in doubts over its chances of winning. While some senior leaders admitted things have not looked good, particularly in the last one month, they refused to divulge details of the reports.

An insider, who claimed the figures are not relevant till all six phases of polling are over, agreed that things could have been better. “A lot of people and even serious analysts believe we’re concerned with the Left and Congress coming together. That has never been a worry because we were confident of swinging votes our way, particularly in rural and suburban seats.

The Saradha scam hardly had any effect in last few years and Narada would have gone the same way. The footage played a role only after the flyover collapsed in Kolkata, which caused the real damage,” the insider admitted.