As if the CPI(M) didn't have enough trouble with its allies, it is staring at another red rag. The planned delimitation of constituencies is set to force it to rework its 25-year-old seat distribution formula with its partners as the Big Brother of the Left Front.As in other states, as part of the delimitation exercise, many key constituencies have lost bits or gained pieces, or have been merged or new ones created, to ensure the same number of voters - 1.7 lakh in case of West Bengal.Since 1982, the Left Front has followed the practice of allotting Assembly seats to its nine partners on the basis of the previous election's results. While the party that won it the last time has the first rights to the counstituency, on seats where there is no LF winner, the partner that was the closest to victory gets it.The CPI(M)'s problems begin with the constituencies which have disappeared or been carved out new, not the ones that have added or lost bits.For example, Dhakuria, one of the 21 Assembly segments in Kolkata, is earmarked for the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP). But Kolkata has been left with 11 Assembly segments after the redrawing of borders, and Dhakuria is now a part of a new constituency named Dhakuria Tollygunj.But Tollygunj is a CPI(M) seat. So who should get Dhakuria? The question is particularly sensitive as RSP minister Kshiti Goswami, who represents Dhakuria in the current Assembly, has become a leading and vocal opponent of the CPI(M) since the Singur and Nandigram debates over land acquisition.The CPI, another big Front member that is unhappy with the CPI(M), has lost Sealdah in Kolkata and Indpur in Bankura district to delimitation. Both Sealdah and Indpur have been chopped up and added to adjoining constituencies. Where will the CPI(M) accommodate the CPI now?The Forward Bloc, the third vocal opponent of the CPI(M), has seen three of its seats in Purulia districts merged into two.“We definitely need a new formula,” CPI State Secretary Manjukumar Majumdar says, giving the first hint of a dust-devil in what promises to be a storm. CPI(M) Central Committee member Benoy Konar feels that since demographies have changed, new equations would have to be applied. “The good thing is that the total number of seats in the state has not gone up. All we have to work out is the allotment of areas among our partners,” he notes.However, Forward Bloc Hafiz Alam Sairani, a state Secretariat member, hits the nail on the head when he says that any resolution of the brewing crisis depends on the attitude of the Left Front leaders. "
