Buddhadeb steps into tenth year in office amid difficulties

With the industrialisation drive coming to a cropper and his 'poster boy' tag no more in sight, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee stepped into the tenth year in office today amid a wave of Maoist violence and political opposition, leading a Government in the most tumultuous times in three decades.

Away from the days when he enjoyed wide adulation after taking over from Mr Jyoti Basu on November six, 2000 and steered the CPI(M)-led ruling Left Front to successive Assembly polls victories in 2001 and 2006 - the last time with the help of a landslide mandate - history seemed to have taken too short a time apparently to come to a full circle, posing to him the challenge of retaining Bengal's red citadel in the 2011 Assembly elections.

After the storms of Singur and Nandigram flashed ominous signs, the ruling Front lost half of its rural strongholds in the 2008 Panchayat elections and the Trinamool Congress-led Opposition went on pulling off dramatic victories in successive polls, including that for the Lok Sabha. This had triggered a widespread speculation over the fate of the Marxist Government in the next Assembly elections.

Crestfallen and shaken, the Bhattacharjee Government is now often accused of shying away from taking hard decisions and wobbling its way to 2011.

The situation was aggravated by a bloody turf war that erupted between the CPI(M) and Trinamool Congress and claimed more than 100 lives over the past six months.

While both sides blamed each other for the blood bath, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee has already demanded imposition of President's rule in West Bengal for the alleged 'CPI(M) atrocities' and 'lawlessness' in the state.

Even though the Front Government also complained with the Centre against the Trinamool Congress, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram asked the Chief Minister to maintain law and order 'whatever be the provocation'.

-- (UNI) -- 06CA28.xml

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