The 2011 State Assembly Election in West Bengal

Bidyut Chakrabarty
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Bidyut Chakrabarty: Political Science, University of Delhi, India. Presently associated with Mahatma Gandhi Center for Global Non-Violence, James Madison University, USA. Email: chakrabx@jmu.edu

Journal of South Asian Development, 2011, vol. 6, issue 2, 143-167

Abstract: On the basis of electoral data and other inputs from the grassroots, the article attempts to comprehend the poll reversal of the Left Front in West Bengal in 2011 state assembly election. The article further argues that the 2011 poll victory of the Trinamul Congress-alliance is the culmination of a process that started with the mis-handling of the people’s agitation by the government over the land-grab in Singur and Nandigram for rapid industrialisation. By votingout the incumbent government after three decades, the voters of West Bengal had once again proved that no political party was invincible in a democratic system of governance. The reasons are located in the failure of the ruling party to understand the mass sentiments and also in the success in bringing the divided opposition by the Trinamul leadership under one political platform.

Keywords: Left Front; Trinamul Congress; Stalinist mode of functioning; Parivartan (change); panchyats; special economic zones; refugee settlement; hegemony; grassroots functionaries; Ma-Mati-O-Manus (mother; motherland and people) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:soudev:v:6:y:2011:i:2:p:143-167

DOI: 10.1177/097317411100600201

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