The drubbing and debacles of the Marxist party in the polls seem to have completed a full circle with all the bigwigs in the previous Cabinet, including chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, Nirupam Sen, Gautam Deb, Ashok Bhattacharjee ending up as big losers in the polls. The million dollar question which has now cropped up
is: Who will lead the decimated Left Front in the state Assembly? The mass defeat of the stalwarts of the CPI(M) as well as the Left Front has left it groping for a suitable Leader of the Opposition who can match up the hurly-burly politics in the Assembly.
Insiders revealed, the CPI(M) mandarins which “failed to gauge the mindset and mood of the people for change,” had been grooming Gautam Deb to be the deputy of Mr Bhattacharjee, but ironically both of them have faced a humiliating defeats at the hands of a-political personalities in fray.
“The party had not any iota of doubt that they were going to lose in the hustings. Rather, the party was upbeat that there would a re-run of the 2001 Assembly polls when the Left had got the majority with 199 seats belying all the media-hype about Mamata Banerjee’s capturing the corridors of power. Now what has come out in the polls is really a big hazard for the party to select a Leader of the Opposition,” said CPI(M) central committee member.
“It will be a mere hypothesis to select the Leader of the Opposition at this time as we have not given any thought on the issue. We have in this changed scenario, no other option but to select from those who have won,” party state secretary Biman Bose said when asked who will lead the Front in the House.
Interestingly, the two ministers Abdur Rezzak Mollah and Sushanta Ghosh among the four who have won the battle are not in the good books of the party.
“Rezzakda and Sushanta have no love lost with the party satraps. They (like Subhas Chakraborty) had time and again left the party red-faced voicing against Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s aggressive land acquisition policy and desperate industrial drive. It’s obvious that they will be out of the selection,” said a CPI(M) state committee member. In this worst of times, the party may have to opt for either Suryakanta Mishra or Anisur Rahaman for the post of Leader of the Opposition.