Now Left Front minister favours early polls in West Bengal

A senior West Bengal minister Wednesday favoured early elections to the state assembly, saying "people have turned" against the Left Front government.

"The people's mandate is against us. People have turned against us. So, our party feels we should go for early elections. If we lose, then we will sit in the opposition. This is democracy," said state Fisheries Minister Kiranmoy Nanda, chief of the junior Left Front partner, West Bengal Socialist Party.

Nanda has been a minister for over two decades in the Left Front government. His statement comes a day after the assembly by-polls verdict, in which the Front managed to win only one of the 10 seats at stake - with the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) drawing a blank.

Nanda, who has been publicly expressing his disapproval with government policies for the last few months, said his party's state committee authorised him to apprise Left Front chairman Biman Bose of its stand.

"Apart from briefing Bose, I will also raise the matter at Left Front meetings," he said.

Nanda recalled that during Jyoti Basu's chief ministership in 1991, the Left Front government had opted for assembly polls a year ahead of schedule after studying the political situation.

"We had won then. We should take a similar decision now," he said.

Nanda was earlier considered close to the CPI-M, which had often in the past turned to him to silence "mini-revolts" by recalcitrant Front partners.

Nanda's party has four legislators with its main area of influence being East Midnapore district, where the Trinamool Congress has emerged as the numero uno force. The party joined the Left Front in the early 1980s after breaking away from the Janata Party.

Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee has been persistently demanding early elections to the state assembly, citing the Left Front's debacle in a series of polls held over the past one year.

Last updated on Nov 11^th, 2009 at 21:28 pm IST--IANS