Left Front gets six per cent less votes in West Bengal

KOLKATA, 20^th MAY, 2009: The CPI(M)-led ruling Left Front, which faced the worst-ever poll debacle in West Bengal, received six per cent less votes in the Lok Sabha elections which cost the nine-party combine 17 seats.

Since assuming power in the state in 1977, the Left Front more or less secured around 47-50 per cent votes till 2004, but according to statistics this has declined to 43.30 per cent in this Lok Sabha elections in the state.The voteshare of Trinamool Congress-led alliance, on the other hand, was nearly 46 per cent this time. The alliance includes Congress and the Socialist Unity Centre of India.

In the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, the Left Front received 50.71 per cent votes with CPI(M) alone accounting for 38.55 per cent.Trinamool Congress, which contested the elections in alliance with the BJP in 2004, received 29.10 per cent votes with the TC securing 21.4 per cent.Total votes for Left Front in this election was nearly 1.85 crore, while in the 2006 Assembly elections it was polled over 1.98 crore votes.Left Front's total votes in 2004 Lok Sabha elections were over 1.87 crore.

The Trinamool-led alliance (including Congress and Socialist Unity Centre of India) polled over 1.95 crore votes in this Lok Sabha elections. Trinamool Congress alone polled 31.18 per cent, while its poll ally Congress, which contested 14 seats, received 13.45 per cent of the votes.Trinamool Congress fielded candidates in 27 constituencies, leaving one to the SUCI.

BJP, which contested all the 42 Lok Sabha seats, secured 6.14 per cent to win the Darjeeling seat.The saffron party, which contested the seat with the support of the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha and won the seat, got 51.50 per cent votes in the constituency. In rest of the seats, BJP's voteshare ranged between less than two per cent in Tamluk and 21.40 per cent at Alipurduar (ST).

The Left Front's voteshare dropped by over 2.60 lakh compared to 2004 despite the addition of about 50 lakh new voters this time.Compared to 2006 Assembly elections, this Lok Sabha elections saw a rise in the voteshare of both Trinamool Congress and Congress by 32 lakh.