Results of the Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) ... today, made it clear that the Left Front will have a real problem at hand if there is a consolidation of anti-Left forces on the Mahajot mould.

The Trinamool may be only two ahead of the Left Front in the final tally of seats in the Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC), winning 64 as against 62 clinched by the CPI (M), but it must have come as a morale-booster to the party workers after the Panskura win ...

With the State Assembly elections only a year away, the loss of the CMC must have been upsetting for the CPI(M). For over 15 years, the CPI(M)-led Left Front ruled the city by virtue of its hold over the CMC ... In the 1995 election, the Left Front won 70 seats, the Congress 68, BJP two and Independent one. The Front won over the Independent to form the board, even though the Independent defeated a Front candidate at the hustings.

It was a virtual repeat of the 1985 election results, in which too the CPI(M) clung to a thin majority to gain control of the CMC.

The CPI(M) has real cause for worry in view of the way the Trinamool made rapid inroads into known CPI(M) strongholds in the southern fringes of the city like Jadavpore and Behala. It is more due to the split in votes between the Congress and the Trinamool that the CPI(M) was able to record easy wins in north and central Calcutta, making it obvious that only if the anti-left votes remain similarly split in the coming Assembly elections, the CPI(M) can find it easy to thwart the opposition challenge.

Mamata Banerjee, who looks keen to woo the dwindling support base of the Congress further to her favour. With a section of newly-elected Congress councillors likely to cross into the Trinamool side to enable the Trinamool to form the Board, the possibility of the Congress base coming over to the Trinamool looks like a distinct reality as well. For the Congress, the only political success lies in the fact that despite its marginalisation, the party is put in the role of deciders in the hung CMC. The BJP, on the other hand, has little option but to toe the Trinamool line after its none-too- impressive showing. (Source: The Hindustan Times, 29 June, 2000)