What has been the secret of success of the Left Front Government in West Bengal, that they managed to rule the State for 34 long years and won seven successive elections to the State Assembly and why are they now floundering?
The first part of the question has been dogging the minds of people all over the world, for years. Many answers have been offered and many times these answers been discarded by rivals, who simply put it on the enormous electoral machinery and its ability to coerce people to vote for the Front.

Obviously this explanation does not explain the success fully, as the rivals always try to find simple explanations, avoiding any self -blame. Fact is none of the political parties through the last three decades and more have been able to match the organisational strength of the cadre-based party.

“Sanghatan inke bahut mazboot hai, upar se neeche tak”(Their organisation is very strong from bottom to top), points out Hasibul Ali Shaha, a native of Nandigram, who works in Calcutta now for a garment wholesaler.

It was this “strong organisation” and a disciplined one at that, which functioned not just during the elections, unlike most political party organisations in this country, which kept the red flag flying high, all these years.

It was this organisation, which yielded enormous influence over the Government machinery, consequently became the arbiter of Government contracts and jobs. It was also this organisation that successfully implemented the land reforms and brought in the agriculture revolution in the State. This politics of political patronage, in many places benign and welcomed by people, for years, kept the party apparatus well-oiled and flourishing from village level to the State headquarters.

The general feeling and to a great extent a reality too, was that if you are not aligned to the “party” chances of one landing up in Government jobs or getting contracts and enjoying the fruits of such patronage in various other areas, was remote. Of course, wherever the organisation had fair-minded people without vested interests, such patronage worked well, and even those who were not exactly party sympathisers also benefitted because of fair methods employed.

In the recent years however, the organisation started to rot, with vested interests developing, corruption sneaking in, and nepotism becoming the rule. “Sanghatan mein bhai batijawaad bahut ho gaya hai. Commiitte( district and village level) mein sirf unke bathije, unke bhai, unke saas, unke sasur ko jagah milta hai ab (Nepotism has grown in the Committees, only the leaders relatives find a place), Hasibul points out. The old dictum of the Communists, which abhorred nepotism, gave way some years back.

A senior comrade talking to this columnist at Alimuddin Street office of the State Committee, in Kolkata, admitted to it in so many words. “Last two years, we realized all these ills are afflicting our organisation. Corruption, though nothing comparable to what we hear now at the national level, has indeed crept in, and so has nepotism. But in the last two years we have tried very hard to combat and correct it”, the Comrade, a Central Committee member, who still believes that they will be able to surprise all doomsayers, remarked.

But obviously, the corrective measures initiated have not reached the people to convince them that things have changed. “Bahut suna hai hum bhi yeh sab, lekin hume kuch dikhayi nahin deta” (We have heard a lot about this, but we don’t see it here on the ground) , says Farad Ali Shaha and Saha Dev, in Nandigram. The perceptions are so strong that it is not easy to change them, so easily in such a short time.

It’s ironical, though not surprising, that the strong organisation which has been the greatest source of strength of the CPI(M) as well as envy of other political parties, has also become its greatest source of embarrassment and now the target of ire of the people.

The important question now, however is will all this change, if the promised “poribartan”(change) takes place, as it looks like? One has to understand that the politics of Bengal and the practitioners of it, belonging to even the non-left parties have more or less fashioned themselves on the CPI(M).

It is the success of the “strong Organisation” and the “politics of patronage” which they know is what has resulted in the enviously long rule of the CPI (M)-led Left front. And it is not a surprise that Mamata Banerjee, has tried to fashion her organisation also on the lines of the CPI(M). Though the Trinamul Congress cadre cannot be equated in terms of discipline and Simplicity of the Marxist cadre by and large, Mamata herself has made a fetish of her simple ways—her house a very modest one in a very modest locality, her dressing style or rather lack of it, her hawai chappals, insisting on living in a flat and not a bungalow in delhi, driving a modest car and so on.

It’s this simplicity, her rivals call it “drama”, which has endeared her to the common man, and is partly responsible for the “wave” in her favour now. However, what is evident talking to people expecting her to take over the Government, is that many of them are now eagerly waiting for their share in the spoils of power, which has eluded them for three and half decades.

It is this hunger, which is evident, that can prove to be the biggest Achilles heel for Mamata Banerjee, the Chief Minister. It can also potentially turn out to be one of the reasons for a very serious conflict, as the TMC cadres tries to vest the powers enjoyed by the entrenched left cadre for so long.

Another potential area of trouble is the promised industrialization. Mamata Banerjee in her zeal and following the success of her Singur and Nandigram agitations has been going around promising a different kind of strategy for industrialization. It has resulted in huge expectations, as lakhs of youth look forward to jobs in industries. And it is not going to be easy for her to find non-fertile land. And you can bet that the left parties are not going to make it any easy for her too.

Many in Singur have already discovered that the agitation and Tatas being forced to leave the place, has not benefitted anyone, and a section of those who supported Mamata, have turned against her now. So the burden of expectations she carries is so high, all this euphoria surrounding her now can dissipate sooner than one can imagine.

West Bengal is indeed on the threshold of a change, but will this change end the politics of patronage and the high-handedness of a cadre drunk with years of power? Not so sure at all.