World | India
West Bengal communists lose votes over land seizures
The ruling communists in the Indian state of West Bengal have suffered election setbacks in two districts where their controversial seizure of land for industry lost them support from thousands of poor farmers.
- Reuters
- Published: 12:16 May 22, 2008
Kolkata: The ruling communists in the Indian state of West Bengal have suffered election setbacks in two districts where their controversial seizure of land for industry lost them support from thousands of poor farmers.
A coalition led by the Communist Party of India-Marxist, or CPI (M), has run the eastern state for about three decades. But state-wide local government elections saw a backlash against its attempts to attract industry.
Vote results were published late on Wednesday.
The communists prop up the national Congress-led government in parliament. This electoral blow could make them more inclined to put the brakes on the government's industrialisation policies ahead of general elections due by early 2009.
While winning overall in West Bengal, the CPI (M) was routed in Singur, where the state government seized fertile farmland to set up a factory for Tata Motors' Nano car, hailed as the world's cheapest. Farmers have protested against the factory's construction.
The party also lost in Nandigram, a cluster of villagers where a move to take over thousands of acres of land for an industrial complex and a chemical hub sparked protests.
Dozens of farmers have been killed in clashes with police and communist party cadres since 2007 in Nandigram, and the violence forced the national government to suspend plans to set up special low-tax industrial zones across the country.
The CPI (M) coalition won 13 out of 17 districts that went to the polls in West Bengal, which has a population of 80 million.
The rival Trinamool Congress, which campaigns against the seize of agricultural land for industry, celebrated their gains in Singur and Nandigram.
"People finally gave their verdict against the forcible land acquisition," said Mamata Banerjee, who heads Trinamool Congress.
Banerjee's party also won in Haldia, a showpiece industrial town near Nandigram and site of a giant petrochemical complex.
"The communists had embarked on industrialisation without any homework," said economist Abhirup Sarkar, of the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI).
"The poll results are bad omen for the state's industrialisation. At the end of the day, the CPI (M) is also a political party and its leaders political people. So they would now rethink on their policies," Sarkar said.
Some social activists praised the results.
"The defeat of the Left in Singur and Nandigram is the victory of the people and their political empowerment," said Medha Patkar, who was at the forefront of the protests.
The communists blamed the losses on a slander campaign by rivals.
CPI (M) senior leader Shymal Chakraborty said the losses were due to a dirty year-long campaign against the party.
"Rather we did good after such a vicious campaign," he said.
The three-phased polls left at least 22 dead in clashes between rival parties over the last month.
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