Stating that the Left Front was at the crossroads, RSP leader Kshiti Goswami — who is also the state PWD minister — told PTI: “There is a question mark whether we will be able to get the required majority to retain power in the elections to the 294-member state Assembly.” Admitting that the people wanted a change, he said: “They are suffering from monotony due to prolonged Left Front rule. It will be difficult to make up the loss of seven to eight per cent votes.”

Goswami added that seat-sharing between the Trinamool Congress — which is strong in South Bengal — and the Congress in the North would make the combination a formidable one. “Not merely Singur and Nandigram, the anti-incumbency factor is also strong,” he said.

While the Left Front had secured 1.85 crore votes in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, the Congress, Trinamool Congress and its electoral ally SUCI had received 1.96 crore votes.

The CPM central committee member and Housing minister Gautam Deb, however, said: “The situation will change if we manage to get 50 per cent of the 11 lakh votes. Many of our party sympathisers had voted for them.”

Contending that there might be ups and down, CPI parliamentarian Gurudas Dasgupta claimed that the Left would bounce back, as the people were unhappy with the UPA government’s policies and its failure to check rising prices.

Ashok Ghose, a veteran Forward Bloc leader, said the situation could still change if the challenge was countered while the Front carries the people along with it.

If the Front managed to increase 12 votes per booth, it would be able to form government for the eighth successive time in the state, he said.

Admitting that the odds were against the Front, Secretary of the CPI state council, Manju Kumar Majumder, felt that all was not lost. “We are rectifying our mistakes and the people already have the experience of seeing the Trinamool Congress running zilla parishads in two districts and controlling several panchayat samitis and gram panchayats,” he said.

He claimed that the Trinamool Congress was politicking over serious issues like drought and not attending meetings convened by Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee to discuss the situation.

The Front, which had notched up a spectacular victory in 2006 — capturing 235 of the 294 Assembly seats in the state — suffered an erosion of its rural base in the 2008 panchayat elections. It, however, managed to retain its domination in 13 of the state’s 17 districts.

The industrialisation drive led to the Left Front being wiped out in Nandigram and Singur — the two hotspots which saw largescale Trinamool Congress-sponsored agitations against plans to acquire land for setting up industries.