Four days after the filing of nominations began, the Front partners have succeeded in putting up a united face in only four of the 18 districts. Elsewhere, Front constituents have put up candidates against each other for several thousand seats.

Chief Minister Jyoti Basu repeatedly warned Front partners against ``friendly fights'' this time in view of attempts by the BJP-TC combine to field a common candidate against each LF nominee. In the last panchayat elections in 1993, Front partners fought each other for over 13,000 gram panchayat seats. The Front's unity bid has become more difficult this time as the total number of panchayat seats has dropped from nearly 71,000 to 59,000 because of delimitation of constituencies. In 1993, the LF won 46,000seats, against 18,600 won by the Congress, 2,400 by the BJP and the rest by Independents.

Going by the trend of the last Lok Sabha elections, CPI(M) leaders anticipate that Mamata Banerjee's new party would once again carry away most of the Congress votes. All over the State, the majority of Congress winners of 1993 have switched over to the TC. Initial reports about the nominations filed over the past four days suggest that most of the sitting Congress panchayat members are in the fray this time as TC candidates.

As for the LF, it has managed to reach complete unity in Howrah, Bankura, Burdwan and Purulia districts. But in many districts where rivalries between the CPI(M) and some other Front partner have long been well known, the Front's unity efforts have come a cropper.

Thus, the Revolutionary Socialist Party has refused to toe the CPI(M) line in the former strongholds in Murshidabad and South 24 Parganas districts. Similarly, the CPI(M) finds the Forward Bloc demands unmanageable in Birbhum andCooch Behar districts. In fact, the State FB secretary, Asok Ghosh, has been camping in Cooch Behar to try and sort out differences between his party and the CPI(M).

CPI(M) leader Biman Bose says his party is willing to make concessions to smaller Front partners for the sake of unity. Even the leaders of other Front parties seem to be more keen for unity this time than before, obviously because the Left has been shaken by the success of the BJP-TC combine in the Lok Sabha elections.

Even so, complete unity may remain a far cry and most Front leaders are reconciled to this. As a CPI leader put it, the rural poll candidates are guided by local and personal considerations which often override political compulsions. State-level politics is not always reflected at the village level.

Thus, in the Goghat block in the Arambagh subdivision of Hooghly district, some CPI and Forward Bloc members are reported to have joined hands with the BJP to teach the CPI(M) a lesson. And, as State BJP president Tapan Sikdarhas alleged, Congress and Trinamool Congress members are expected to work unitedly against the CPI(M) in many areas.

Biman Bose and other Left leaders are however hopeful that the number of intra-Front fights would be reduced after the withdrawal of nominations. This is important also because of the fact that in the panchayat polls the winning margins are often only a few votes.