The Left Front’s vote share declined to 4.45 per cent in the recently concluded Assembly elections, down from 4.73 per cent in 2021. Despite the marginal dip, the alliance managed to secure one seat this time after failing to open its account five years ago.
This performance marks a steep fall from its dominance in 2011, when the Left Front polled around 39 per cent of the vote, including 30 per cent secured by the CPI(M) alone. That election had ended the Front’s uninterrupted 34-year rule, with power shifting to the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress.
In the 2026 polls, which recorded a turnout exceeding 90 per cent, the CPI(M) garnered 4.45 per cent of votes across the 293 constituencies where counting took place. Its lone victory came from the Domkal seat in Murshidabad district, while most other candidates were defeated as the BJP and the Trinamool Congress dominated the electoral landscape.
None of the other Left Front constituents crossed the one per cent vote share mark. The CPI(M) managed second place finishes in only two constituencies—Bhagawangola and Jalangi—both in Murshidabad.
Murshidabad, a Muslim-majority district bordering Bangladesh, had witnessed unrest last year over the implementation of the Waqf Amendment Act, adding a layer of political sensitivity to the region.
Several high-profile CPI(M) candidates, including senior advocate Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, central committee member Minakshi Mukherjee, and student leader Dipsita Dhar, failed to secure top-two positions in their respective constituencies.
The Left Front fielded candidates in 252 of the 294 seats, with the CPI(M) contesting 195 constituencies. Its allies included the All India Forward Bloc (23 seats), CPI (16), RSP (16), and smaller partners such as the RCPI and the Marxist Forward Bloc.
In this election, the Left Front allied with the All India Secular Front (AISF) and CPI(ML) Liberation. However, efforts to forge a broader alliance with the Congress did not materialise. The Congress contested all 294 seats independently and won two, while the AISF retained its lone stronghold, Bhangar.
In contrast, the 2021 Assembly elections had seen the Left Front, Congress and AISF contest together under a seat-sharing arrangement—an experiment that ultimately failed to yield a single seat for either the Left Front or the Congress.
(With inputs from PTI)
