On this day the Left Front formed its first government in West Bengal with Jyoti Basu as its chief minister. Left Front is a group of left-wing parties: the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPIM), All India Forward Bloc, the Revolutionary Socialist Party, the Marxist Forward Bloc, the Revolutionary Communist Party of India and the Biplabi Bangla Congress. The Communist Party of India joined later.
The front had won 231 out of the 294 seats.
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The CPI(M) was the major party in the alliance. The Left Front ruled West Bengal for seven consecutive terms, from 1977 to 2011.
Basu was chief minister till 2000, followed by Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.