The jhola-carrying lady with her trademark rubber sandals failed to gauge the mood of the electorate. Though S.S. Ray, former West Bengal chief minister, former Punjab governor and former Indian ambassador to the US—or Manu da, as he is affectionately called—campaigned for her, she failed to consolidate the anti-Left vote. Now that she can no longer blame CPI(M) goons for scientifically rigging the polls, the question is whether '06 is the beginning of the end of the political road for her. MB and her one-woman show managed to come through relatively unscathed in Calcutta proper. The Left barely increased its vote share in the city from 42.3 per cent to 42.5 per cent and won nine instead of eight seats. So much for the media hype that the city's upper and middle classes had finally given up their pathological dislike for the reds and see in BB the ultimate 'new Left' leader, a Deng with a capitalist heart in a communist body.
