AGARTALA, May 21 (TIWN): West Bengal poll debacle costing heavily for both CPI-M and Congress as both parties continue to lose their support base to ruling TMC. Even though foreign educated Sitaram Yechury and Rahul Gandhi thought that their foolish decision of aligning both parties would fetch election dividends but Mamata Banerjee's thumping majority again proves that Yechury-Rahul remained as political novice in front of street smart Mamata. The Left Front has been relegated to the third position, scoring just 32 seats in the 294-member West Bengal assembly. Even Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar, who is considered as the poster boy for CPI-M, failed to increase voter percentage for CPI-M in Bengal.The Left isn't marching on the streets of Bengal anymore. It was the tie-up with its old foe Congress that the Left Front was banking upon, hoping that it would revive its electoral fortunes against a rampaging Trinamool. But political analysts feel that the Left dug its own grave by tying up with the Congress.The Congress has fared better, winning 44 constituencies -- an increase by two seats from its 2011 count.

Out of power since they were routed in 2011, the Comrades were hoping for a comeback in the 2016 assembly election in their former Red citadel. But that was not to be, not even after a tie-up with the Congress. Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee and her green troopers have smothered the Left-Congress alliance for good.

Contrary to the expectations, the alliance did not work at all, especially for the Left. The fight was between Trinamool's development plank and the opposition's charges of corruption. People voted for development.

Âs per political analysts, “The biggest bane for the tie-up has been its persistent negative attack on Mamata. The alliance remained silent on its own programmes if it came to power, and thus failed to project itself as a viable alternative to the Trinamool,"

Contesting in 193 seats and lending support to associate parties and independents in 11 others, the Left's share plummeted to 32 seats from the 62 it had won in 2011. The combine's vote share stood at 24 percent as against the 41 percent it had garnered five years back when it contested in all 294 seats.

Bagging just 26 seats, the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) came up with its worst performance since 1972, when it had to be content with 14. Among its partners, the Revolutionary Socialist Party got three, the All-India Forward Bloc two, and the Communist Party of India just one.

Even in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections the Left Front had managed 29.71 percent of vote share in the state bagging two seats as against the Trinamool which had polled 39.05 percent votes to win 34 seats. However, the Left had then contested all the 42 seats.

Unlike its ally Left, the Congress came up with a better performance.

Contesting in only 108 seats, the Congress won 44 constituencies, surpassing its 2011 tally of 42 seats. It also improved its vote percentage this time to 12.3 percent as against the 8.91 percent it got in 2011 when it had contested in alliance with the Trinamool.

Citing Congress's performance, analysts say the tie-up was counter-productive for the Left.

“While both the Left and the Congress did assert the tie-up was a peoples' call, the result prove that the arrangement was not acceptable to many, especially the core Congress supporters who have suffered decades of atrocities during the Left regime.

“It is because of the tie-up that Trinamool surpassed the 200 mark as large number of Congress voters ended up voting for the Trinamool," said analyst Anil Kumar Jana.

According to sources, a section of central CPI-M leadership was not in favour of alliance with the Congress.

CPI-M general secretary Sitaram Yechury blamed the ruling Trinamool Congress for his party's poor show.“

"It was a tough fight for us given the violence and intimidation unleashed by the party in power. Many of our brave comrades lost their lives," Yechury said.

He avoided a direct response on the future of his party's alliance with the Congress in West Bengal. "We had formed the alliance to resist the violent forces and protect the democratic rights and civil liberties of the people. The resistance would continue," Yechury said.

While the daggers are still not out in the CPI-M, some of the Leftists are pointing fingers at the Congress.

"The Left voters extended their wholehearted support to the Congress, but I feel there remains a question mark over Congress votes coming to us," said CPI-M politburo member Mohammad Salim, admitting that the tie-up "failed to convey the right message to the masses".

Even as he insisted the tie-up continued to be relevant, CPI-M state secretary and face of the combine Surjya Kanta Mishra too echoed Salim:.

But in the end, the Left Front is now left with almost nothing. It has to deal with organisational deficiency as it accepts the fact that people of Bengal are not ready to give it another chance. 

Manik Sarkar’s failure in Bengal Poll campaigning and BJP’s Assam win indicates that tough days ahead  for CPI-M in Tripura.