Now that all the exit polls have predicted the exit of Left Front, the million-dollar question being asked is: what role will Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee play in the changed circumstances?
Some news channels have also predicted Mr Bhattacharjee’s defeat in Jadavpur. If he indeed loses and so does the Left Front then it is another matter, but if he wins the seat and the Left Front still loses, then, will he be the Leader of the Opposition?
Mr Bhattacharjee succeeded Jyoti Basu in 2000 and has since been leading the Left Front government.
After first leading the Left Front to an impressive victory in 2001 and then winning a landslide in 2006, Mr Bhattacharjee further consolidated his position.
Party leaders, who were initially a little apprehensive whether he would prove an able successor to a tall leader like Basu, were impressed after he led the party and the Left Front to a massive victory in 2006. “Had any one said in 2006 that Buddhada will lose power in the next Assembly elections, he would have been declared insane. He is only 66, young by Communist standard and could rule for at least a decade,” a CPI(M) state secretariat member said.
However, Mr Bhattacharjee squandered the huge mandate he himself had won in 2006 by embarking on an overzealous industrialisation drive. His overdrive to acquire land for the new industries became his nemesis because he failed to take into account the tenacity of the tillers where land was involved. He also did not realise that the Singur issue would give Ms Mamata Banerjee, who was down in the dumps after her party’s decimation, a new lease of life. Since then, it has been all downhill journey for Mr Bhattacharjee.
The CPI(M) bosses still nurture hope that by some miracle the Left Front would return to power albeit with a much reduced majority. “We are hoping for the best but preparing for the worst,” he added.
Realising that in Opposition Mr Bhattacharjee would be the main target of the Trinamul Congress, the CPI(M) satraps are not keen on making him the Leader of the Opposition. “He is a soft-spoken and suave bhadralok who will not be able to withstand Ms Banerjee’s vitriolic attack in the Assembly,” he said.
The party, therefore, wants to give Mr Bhattacharjee a free hand in deciding his own position if the Left Front fails to return to power. The party may field outgoing state finance minister Asim Dasgupta or state housing minister Gautam Deb as Opposition leader.