India: BJP likely to gain numbers, Left may face rout in 2018 rural polls in Bengal (Tanmay Chatterjee / Hindustan Times)

Political mainstay of the Marxists for 34 years and now hunting ground for Trinamool Congress and BJP, Bengal’s villages may significantly alter the political equilibrium when panchayats go to the polls in 2018, feel many opposition leaders.
The Left, many of them fear, could be pushed towards political isolation while the BJP would rise because of sustained activities of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in Bengal’s districts where religious divides have started to emerge as raging issues; a phenomenon not witnessed during the Left regime.

Going by the results to the last Lok Sabha, Assembly, municipal and panchayat polls, the Left has lost ground faster than anyone had anticipated. Villages that once enjoyed the benefits of Operation Barga (land reforms) implemented by the Left Front government in the 70s have witnessed a paradigm shift in voting pattern.

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