Survey predicts end of Left era in W Bengal

The 35-year-rule of the CPI(M)-led Left in West Bengal is set to come to a definite end with the six-phase Assembly election beginning April 18 if the results of a survey conducted by Kerala’s Asianet News television channel and research group C fore are any indication. The survey has predicted a rout for the Left in the polls.

According to the survey conducted among 6,210 voters, the Trinamool Congress-Congress alliance is expected to bag 200 to 210 seats in the 294-member West Bengal Assembly. If the survey results are any indication, the Left could be reduced to just 80-90 seats. The survey brings no relief to the BJP: It does not expect that party to win any seat at all.

Fifty-five percent of the voters who responded to queries wanted Trinamool leader Mamata Banerjee to be the State’s chief minister while 38 percent preferred Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. The survey indicated that Union Minister Pranab Mukherjee is not much popular in the State as only four percent preferred him.

The responses in the survey to a question on how the voters judged the Left rule of the past five years are issuing a strict warning to the Left. Forty-one percent of the respondents were dissatisfied with the Red rule while 33 percent of the respondents found the performance of the sitting MLAs of the Left as bad.

The survey shows that the biggest issues concerning the electorate related to the very basic areas. Seventy-four percent of the people surveyed complained about the lack of minimum facilities. The biggest problem seems to be lack of development of roads as 23 percent of the voters complained about this.

Drinking water shortage was the biggest problem, according to 17 percent of the voters covered by the survey. For 19 percent of them, the most crucial issue was price rise. The sectors of electricity and health service were worst as far as eight percent each were concerned. Seven percent said unemployment was the biggest problem in West Bengal.