Left experiences nightmare in Bengal, struggles with baffling figures

The Left, which once held complete sway over this part of country, with its writ running for 34 years till 2011, now stands third with only 32 seats- 12 behind the Congress, which is set to play the main opposition.

Of the state Assembly's 294 seats, Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress has captured a whopping 211 to bring the state under the largest ever single party rule.

The stupefying change in balance of power in the state over a decade can be gauged from the fact that the Trinamool Congress, which had only 29 members , added immense flab in the 2011 elections claiming 184 seats. The figure went much above the 200-mark in the just concluded polls and  the party now commands more than two-thirds majority. 

The strength of the Front, on the other hand, came to a jaw dropping low- from 235 in 2006 to 62 in 2011 and then to 32 this time-on the brink. 

Both the Left and the Congress, which remained at the receiving end under the Trinamool rule, decided to come to a seat adjustment this time-a unique move that the state has ever seen the two forces which fought each other for decades  to make. 

Though the decision raised many eyebrows, the leaders said it was the "people's decision" to move ahead against the "autocratic and tyrannical" TMC rule.

But in a quirk of fate the end result brought in for the Left the horrible possibility of being extinct from the land it lorded over for long though the Congress reaped a nice dividend by increasing its seats to 44 from 42.