VZCZCXRO5796
RR RUEHAST RUEHBI RUEHDBU RUEHLH RUEHNEH RUEHPW
DE RUEHCI #0144 1491144
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 291144Z MAY 09
FM AMCONSUL KOLKATA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 2373
INFO RUCNCLS/ALL SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA COLLECTIVE
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RHEHAAA/NSC WASHINGTON DC
RUEHCI/AMCONSUL KOLKATA 2915

UNCLAS KOLKATA 000144 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR SCA/INSB 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL IN
SUBJECT: WEST BENGAL'S "LEFT" - OUT IN THE COLD 
 
REF: KOLKATA 132 
 
¶1. (SBU) The Communist Party of India - Marxist (CPI-M) 
dominated Left Front in West Bengal is currently examining the 
reasons for the disastrous parliamentary election results, which 
saw its seat tally reduced from 35 to 15, the lowest since its 
came to power in 1977.  Party members are divided, both 
according to personal allegiances and ideological differences as 
to where the party went wrong.  State leaders tend to blame the 
party's national level "mistakes" such as the Left's withdrawal 
from the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government or the 
failed marketing of the faulty product that was the "Third 
Front".  Others view state level "mistakes" such as forcible 
land acquisition for industry and departure from some of the 
party's pro-poor policies of the past as reasons for the 
electoral debacle.  In West Bengal, as in the rest of eastern 
India, local, rather than national, politics played a decisive 
factor in the 2009 parliamentary elections (See Reftel). 
 
¶2. (SBU) Trinamool supremo and new Railways Minister Mamata 
Banerjee has achieved what no other political leader in West 
Bengal has been able to do in 32 years - shatter the illusion of 
the CPI-M's invincibility - and is riding a increasing wave of 
momentum.  She successfully ran an opposition campaign with a 
message of "change" and opposition to forcible land acquisition 
for industry.  Her campaign was aided by a tactical pre-poll 
alliance with Congress.  The CPI-M had alienated traditional 
supporters (farmers and Muslims) through aggressive 
industrialization policies, complemented by weak development 
initiatives, particularly in rural or socioeconomically 
disadvantaged areas.  The 2009 parliamentary elections may have 
been the first tolling of the CPI-M's death bell, internally 
prompting considerable soul-searching and perhaps its transition 
into more of a social democratic party.   Portions of the 
humbled and vulnerable Left, whose "anti-US imperialism" plank 
failed to pay electoral dividends, may also be more receptive of 
the US's "enhanced strategic partnership" with India. 
 
¶3. (SBU) If the Left is to remain politically relevant, it will 
have to decide upon a way forward with an appropriate leader and 
a strategy to confront the upcoming political tests: municipal 
and state assembly by-elections in 2009, Kolkata city elections 
in 2010, and the real prize - the state assembly - in 2011. 
Regardless of the CPI-M's future course of action, what is clear 
is that Banerjee will utilize her position as a minister and UPA 
ally at the Center to govern, direct central funds to West 
Bengal, and seize any opportunity to make her case for change. 
 
TAYLOR