Ironically, the Congress is the closest it has ever been to pulling off a major electoral coup and there's little doubt that the ruling Left Front faces its stiffest challenge in 1996 in the state it has ruled undisturbed for 18 years. Pointing to the Congress' favourable prospects, a professor of political science in Calcutta University says: "The number of warring factions within the major opposition party is down to only two, from three or four groups earlier. And the BJP, which picked up 11.47 per cent of the total votes polled in 1991, should not be able to win more than 5 to 6 per cent if the recent civic and panchayat polls are any indication. In 1991, the BJP had made the Congress defeat easier by influencing its candidates' chances in 30 assembly seats, which would otherwise have given the Congress a respectable tally of 73 seats in a house of 294, as against the 43 it eventually won. And as far as the Left goes, senior leaders like Nripen Chakravarty and Benoy Choudhury have criticised their own party publicly. Conditions look tailor-made for the Opposition in 1996."