Asserting that the 2023 rural elections indicate resurgence of the Left in West Bengal after the debacle in the 2021 assembly polls, the CPI(M) said the binary of the Trinamul Congress and the BJP is not working in the state.

The party claimed that together with the Congress and ISF, they have clocked a vote share of 21 per cent in the panchayat elections, up from 10 per cent in the assembly elections. "That the Left is ascending is a clear indication," CPI(M) central committee member Sujan Chakraborty said.

The increase in vote share of the Left, Congress and ISF combined has turned the electoral contest into a three-cornered affair from the two-way contest between the TMC and BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and the 2021 assembly polls.

The Left parties have repeatedly accused the BJP and the TMC of mixing religion with politics to confuse the electorate.

"The binary could not be made (in this panchayat election) as was proposed by the TMC and BJP," Chakraborty told PTI.

The Left party, which had not been able to put up any remarkable fight in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and could not win any seat in the 2021 assembly elections, claims to be steadily becoming a force to reckon with again in West Bengal.

In the 2018 panchayat polls, the TMC had won unopposed in 34 per cent seats with the opposition parties alleging intimidation and violence by ruling party workers.

The BJP, which had bagged 38 per cent votes in 2021 assembly elections in the state, got around 22 per cent votes in the 2023 panchayat polls, the CPI(M) claimed.

The CPI(M) said it started making a turnaround in the bypolls after the 2021 elections, with its vote share steadily increasing in all these, including Ballygunge, Shantipur and also in the Calcutta Municipal Corporation elections.

Alleging that the recently held rural polls were marred by violence and rigging by members of the ruling party, Chakraborty claimed that there is no legitimacy of the result in this election "because of atrocities resulting in huge amount of vote loot and dacoity in counting." He alleged that many of the winning candidates of CPI(M) were denied certificates despite having won, while the losing candidates of TMC were given winner certificates.

The former Jadavpur Lok Sabha constituency MP claimed that "in spite of huge repression and vote loot," the vote percentage of the Left and its allies grew by nearly 12 per cent compared to the 2021 assembly polls.

He said analysts suggest the TMC's vote share could have gone down to 30 to 35 per cent had it been a free and fair election.

"The Left and its allies could have been plus-minus 30 per cent and thereby it could cause concern to the ruling parties in both the Centre and the state," the CPI(M) leader said.

The ruling Trinamul Congress has secured a massive victory in the three-tier rural elections, winning all the 20 zilla parishads and many of the panchayat samities and the gram panchayats.

The Calcutta High Court has said the panchayat elections and the declaration of results will be subject to its final orders in connection with matters that it is hearing over allegations of electoral malpractices.

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