New Challenges for Bengal Left-Panchayat Poll Pointers

Panchayat Poll Pointers Dipankar Bhattacharya THE three-tier panchayat system of West Bengal went through another round of elections on May 30. In West Bengal, the panchayats are known as pillars of the CPl(M) s power-base and the fourth panchayat poll under Left Front rule, held on the eve of the Left Front government's 16th anniversary, was not expected to throw up anything unsettling in Bengal's settled polity. In fact, with the Congress lying discredited and thoroughly disorganised and the BJP threatening further cuts into the thinning Congress support base, the Left Front, particularly the CPI(M), had hoped to romp home with a still larger majority.