Posted on 05/13/2011 2:17:00 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
Poll rout leaves India's communists in limbo
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE
KOLKATA, May 13: The Indian state of West Bengal said goodbye Friday to three decades of uninterrupted rule by the world´s longest-serving, democratically elected communist government.
Early results from state polls made it clear that the Left Front, led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist), or CPI-M, had been swept aside in a landslide that marks the end of an era in India´s modern politics. The victor was the Trinamool Congress Party of firebrand national railways minister Mamata Banerjee, the largest ally of the Congress Party in the federal ruling coalition.
"This is the victory of the people against years of oppression," Banerjee told a huge crowd of cheering supporters outside her modest, one-storey residence in the state capital Kolkata.
"There will be end to autocracy and atrocities," she said, adding that she was "thankful and humbled" by the scale of the victory.
With counting still underway, Trinamool and its allies were leading in 218 of the state assembly´s 294 seats, with the Marxists ahead in just 67.
If the final result reflects the same margin, it would effectively consign the once-powerful CPI-M to the political wilderness.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called Banerjee from Afghanistan, where he is on a two-day trip, to congratulate the fiery unmarried 56-year-old who is now set for a more influential national role.
"It´s a profoundly important moment for the people of the state who had an intense desire for change," said political analyst Sabyasachi Basu Roychowdhury.
Banerjee, a populist who casts herself as a champion of the poor, has ridden a wave of
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If only the American people were intelligent to kick the communists out of their national government, the end would no longer be in sight.
Good job, but from what I read of Ms. Banerjee’s political tendencies, she’s not much better — didn’t she throw the Tatas out of Bengal, killing off a lot of investment?
Hard to say which of the these is the lesser of two evils. But the fact is that there was arbitrary Communist-style land acquisition and evictions in Singur for the Tata project, so its unlikely any opposition party would not have exploited the opportunity. While the Communists had opened up the industrial sector in West Bengal, regulations and procedures were very loopsided and several companies were at the mercy of Communist unions and their goons.
The healthiest thing to happen to India in a long time, but my understanding is that the entire country see-saws between liberty and Marxism every other election.
That India has successful Marxist politicians tells you just how far she must come to compete with the USA. Ours still have to lie about it.
This is great news, good on them.
Wonder how the current administration would have fared if forced to run under the Che banner in everyone of their campaign offices?
Both major political formations in India’s federal parliament- led by the centre-right BJP and centre-left Congress embrace an unweildy mix of populist protectionism and free-market reform. The Western notion of “liberty vs Marxist” doesn’t really work here.
Marxists have never come to power in national politics in any major role. Communist parties have been in poor in only three states; they just lost two of them.
Looking to the state of the Railways, I pray that Bengalis have not just traded the frying pan for the fire.
I think one point about Mamata is that she was hardly focussed on the Railways in both her tenures given that elections were always “around the corner” in West Bengal unlike the trio of ministers from Bihar who held the same post. While that’s not an excuse in any way for underperformance, it’s not a handy platform to judge her administrative skills (or lack of it).
My own guess is she’ll try hard to avoid going the Mayawati/Early Jayalalitha route given that West Bengal is a wholly different ballgame than UP or Tamil Nadu. One thing which needs to be appreciated is that she doesn’t appear as ostentatious as the other two females did when they headed the throne.
Let us hope so. There is a huge difference between rabble rousing and actually running a govt. . Now she will be on the receiving end.
Mayawati gets bad press, but her constituency - the Dalits and backwards - have made immeasurable progress. My customers in UP too feel that she has quietly done a lot of good, but the national press ignores that. - and they're industrialists. They all expect Rahulbaba to continue casting his magic spell on the Congress partys' prospects - reducing it to single digits, like in Bihar , TN and almost botching up Kerala - where all the "Amul babies" lost, except the one who was taking over his fathers' seat.
A few months ago Swaminathan S. Anklesaria Iyer had written in the TOI on the same topic. Worth reading, if you can dig it up.
Rahul Baba-well less said, the better!! The one thing I’ve admired about him is that he’s not taken on a major role yet. Whether that’s prudence or lack of confidence-that’s another thing!!
About Mayawati, both she and Jayalalitha are good administrators. I’d say in will power alone, they are up there with the likes of Modi. What’s been a sore point for them is their lifestyle and image which had affected relations with the major parties (Congress/BJP) and their supporters in the Press. Jayalalitha seem to have cleaned up her act though after the 2004 parliamentary election loss.
Mamata in theory doesn’t have the scope for such tantrums since the CPI-M remains a very capable beast. That being West Bengal needs serious surgery and will need more than one Mamata for it.
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