For people in any other part of the world, save for dictated nations, controlled democracies or ones that pretend to be one, what has happened for the last 34 years in West Bengal has been a source of continuous amazement. For that matter even within India, politicians of all non-left parties, have enviously wondered how one Party/Front can retain power for so long.

Winning seven elections successively is the stuff dreams are made of for ordinary politicians and political parties. But for the Left Front in West Bengal it was a dream that they lived successfully for three and half decades even as election after election, the prophets of doom kept predicting, “this is it, this time they will lose”, only to eat humble pie(or is it dal-baat!) every time the results were out.

Unable to understand or explain the phenomena, the rival politicians and even a section of the media, attributed it to “scientific rigging” and any other reason which they could muster. What one wonders however, is if it was only “scientific rigging” which kept the left in power, why other political parties could not master that art, for all of three decades? Was it so “scientific”, that no one could decode the method? And more importantly, why did this “scientific rigging” fail in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections.

Anyway, after a brief two-day, about 500 kms whirlwind tour of the parts of the State, one can now say safely say, the prophets of the left front doom, may finally be able to say, “we told you so”.
Even believers, sometimes admit that their gods also fail at times (Satya Sai Baba is the most recent example, he could not survive till he was 96 as he had professed). And for the non-believers in West Bengal, who have kept faith in the Left Front, the time has come for them admit that their “gods” are failing.

In recent years, we have not heard much about a “wave” during elections, anywhere. But one gets the feeling now after having been in West Bengal, that if ever there was a “wave-like” atmosphere it is what one sees now in the State. If this is not a wave, then ok, I am not a journalist! Even hard-boiled comrades as well as the novice admit it, though they contend that this is a “jhoota wave”, created by a partisan media and a lying Mamata Banerjee. If that is true, one can only be shocked at the naiveté of the people of the State.

The fact is that there is hardly a handful one spoke to, in Kolkatta and 100 kms north and south of Kolkatta, who said that the change will not happen. The catch phrase, “poribartan” which Mamata Banerjee has successfully turned into a chant across the State, is on the lips of both those who are in favour of it and those also opposed to it, curiously.

There is no left front candidate or leader who does not use the phrase, in his speeches and interviews, though he or she is trying to rubbish it. But for the ordinary people, it is a chant, filled with hope, and one suspects, more so a wish coming out of sheer fatigue of having seen the same Government and faces for three and half decades. It sure has taken one hell of a long time for fatigue to set in, among these people! Any other political party in any other State or country would give their right hand, if people can tolerate them for so long.

But remarkably, some of the comrades sitting in the narrow lanes of Alimuddin Street (where the office of the CPI(M) State committee is located) in their narrow and rather Spartan offices, still are hoping that they will be able to pull it off in the last minute. Knowing their patience, perseverance and doggedness, one is not surprised by their optimism in the face of what is surely the most adverse situation they have faced in an election, in the last three and half decades in the State.

They have reason to feel so, going by their track record and the amount of work they have put in during this time. If one just ignored the political rhetoric of their rivals and look at the State, the agricultural revolution brought in and the admirable land reforms they ushered, is there for all to see. No other State is so rich and lustily green in these months of the year, in any other part of the country. A drive across the State and a view from the air is enough to convince how well the agriculture sector is doing. But what has now become the bane, is the fragmentation of land, and the consequent demand for jobs outside the sector.

In fact, the success of the left front in all these years has become their biggest problem, as it has become difficult to find land for industrialization, because of the high fertility of the land, and the people’s emotional attachment to it. Singur and Nandigram are evidences to it.

A visit to both these places has left one convinced that any future Government will also face similar problems, when it tries to get land for industries. It will require extra-ordinary strategies to convince the people to let go off their land, and it is here that the Left Front failed in convincing people.

It seems it is too late now for the lamenting leftists to reverse the situation, as both Singur and more so Nandigram, which was and continues to be seen as an attempt to grab fertile land, is etched in the memory of the people. It is these two issues which brought Mamata Banerjee bouncing back from virtual oblivion, and it is her successful exploitation of the issue, which now sees her on the doorsteps of a historic change.

Is it going to be a change for the better? Curiously very few people say it with conviction that it is going to be for the better. They are hoping that it will be, and worst comes to worse, they say, we will always have the option of adopting the Kerala model. But change is certainly in the air.