“We do not think that the results are any reflection of the state government’s industrial policy,” Benoy Konar, a CPM central committee member, told mediapersons this evening, as the results started pouring in from south Bengal districts.

Konar said the party had highlighted its industrialisation drive in the campaigning for the panchayat elections and there was no question of backing out from it.

“For the sake of some cheap gains we cannot move away from our task of raising the basic consciousness of the people,” he said and added, “If we do this, it will be disastrous for the state.” “We are fully behind the farmers but we cannot sacrifice our agenda just to appease them,” he added.

As Konar was speaking, the news of the party’s loss in two Zilla Parishads —— the highest level in the three-tier panchayat system —- to the Trinamool Congress poured in. As the evening progressed, the results showed the CPM losing seat after seat at the gram panchayat and panchayat samiti seats.

The party decided to field Konar at Alimuddin Street and not its state secretary Biman Bose since it would have been awkward for Bose, who is also the Left Front chairman, to blame the Left Front partners for the party’s debacle.

Even before the final results, the party sought to attribute the reversals in its fortune to three factors.

First, the rifts in the Left Front, which were not limited to mere seat sharing disagreements but extended to the larger political and policy differences. “The confusion within the Left Front has indirectly helped the Opposition,” the CPM’s state committee said in a statement.

The second reason cited by the party is the weaknesses in the party’s much-vaunted organisation. “Even this morning, we had not imagined the results would be this bad,” Konar admitted, adding, “So we realise now that our organisation did not work properly at all places.”

“The party will now discuss the organisational shortcomings that cost it so many seats,” he said. The third factor, which according to them, affected the party’s prospect was the “flawed functioning” of the panchayats under their and Left partners’ rule.

“The party now realises that the panchayats were not functioning properly at all places and the panchayat functionaries were out of touch with the people,” he added.