Left Front asks ministers to regain voter confidence

Kolkata, May 21 (IANS) After its dismal show in the Lok Sabha polls, West Bengal's ruling Left Front Thursday asked its ministers to speed up implementation of projects benefiting the common man and regain confidence among the voters who had veered to the opposition.

The Left Front, however, described the swing against it as 'marginal'.

'The LF has learnt from the Lok Sabha polls that we need to gear up to solve problems of common people. We'll have to work to get back the lost support of the common people,' LF chairman Biman Bose told the media here after a 90-minute meeting of all the partners.

'We've accepted the verdict of the common people. The state LF has asked all its allies to hold internal assessments within their respective parties to find out the causes of the (dismal) Lok Sabha election results,' he said.

The meeting at the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) headquarters discussed the debacle and tried to zero in on remedial measures.

Bose said: 'There has been a marginal difference in the vote percentage between the LF and the opposition alliance.'

'The LF got 43.3 percent votes (about 1.85 crore) while the opposition (Trinamool Congress and Congress jointly) secured just 45.67 percent votes (a little over 1.9 crore) in the Lok Sabha polls.'

Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI), which has an alliance with the Trinamool Congress, received more than 500,000 votes and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) about 260,000 votes in the polls.

Asked if there was any discussion on the land acquisition issue during the LF meeting, Bose replied in the negative.

'But whether that issue was discussed in the state cabinet meeting, I really don't have any knowledge about that.'

The LF chairman also scotched speculation about state Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacherjee's resignation after the collapse of the Left citadel.

'No such topic was discussed in the meeting. So I am not supposed to say anything on it,' Bose said, negating the demand by the Trinamool Congres to impose president's rule in the state and hold early assembly elections.

The LF - in power since 1977 - lost the Lok Sabha polls, managing to get only 15 of the 42 seats in the state. While main opposition Trinamool Congress won 19, its alliance partners Congress and Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI) secured six and one respectively.