‘Left will strive for early recovery'

“Leftism will have its final say in the matter of peace and prosperity of the downtrodden people.”

Expressing this conviction, Forward Bloc general secretary Debabrata Biswas said that the Left Front victory in 1977 and its defeat in 2011 will both be treated henceforth as “historical events.”

He said the events deserved an in-depth study to trace the evolution of the Left movement in India.

“This study can provide us ample lessons for guidelines to our future course of action,” Mr. Biswas said.

Admitting that it was a landslide victory for the Trinamool Congress, he said the Left accepted the people's verdict and would strive hard in a true leftist way for an early recovery.

Noting that the Left Front has had its ups and downs in the course of its last seven terms, Mr. Biswas said that while this was nothing unusual for a moving body, the nature of the present debacle was something that could not be fully anticipated.

“It is now realised that the people overwhelmingly responded to the massive slogan of change given by the Opposition. This response of the people must have been fuelled by quite a few failures and wrong-stepping by the Left Front government. This is what we need to analyse in detail by the individual partners and the Left Front as a whole,” he said.

Mr. Biswas said the Left Front's two-way role would be to act as a responsible Opposition with a constructive approach. The strength of the Left is down to 62 from 235 in 2006, and the Forward Bloc has won 11 seats, he said.