Left Front will win at least 158 seats: Asok

Left Front will win at least 158 seats: Asok

11 May 2011

statesman news service
SILIGURI, 11 MAY: With poll predictions being churned out by the media houses confirming in unison an imminent Left rout, the senior CPI-M leader and the state urban development minister, Mr Asok Bhattacharya, reaffirmed his conviction that the Left Front would romp home with a comfortable majority. “We will win at least 158 of the 294 seats in the reckoning,” he said.
“Exit polls are bogus. They have no scientific basis. Most of the surveys are motivated and part of the anti-Left Front campaign,” he averred.
He, however, admitted that the 2011 election was the toughest for the ruling Front. “We have no illusions over that. It is difficult to retain some seats. But to say that we would lose seats like Binpur, Jamuria, Chopra, Malatipur and others is to indulge in idle fancy. If the exit polls were to be believed Dr Manas Bhuniya would lose from Sabong. This is ridiculous,” he said.
Sounding optimistic, the Siliguri strongman said that the Front had already retrieved grounds in some places since the parliamentary election debacle in 2009. “The election results would show that the Left redoubt has remained unscathed in most parts of the state despite malicious campaign by the Opposition,” he said.
Taking a swipe at the Trianmul Congress, Mr Bhattacharya said that it had gone into an overt electoral alliance with forces inimical to the interests of the state.
“With the GJMM in Darjeeling Hills and Maoists in Junglemahal having allied with Trinamul Congress, grim days are awaiting the state. We have information that Maoists had forced the people to cast their votes for the Trinamul Congress in several areas of West Midnapore. The same thing happened in the Dooars where the GJMM, ABAVP, the Congress and the Trinamul Congress are in the same camp. We have reasons to be worried,” he said.