Even as it refused to discount the possibility of a post-poll alliance with the Left,the Congress on Sunday released a scathing development report card on 30 years of the Left Front rule in West Bengal in a bid to question its credentials in leading a Third Front. The report card presented a dismal picture of the Left-ruled state on development indices,including education,health and nutrition,employment generation,income growth,et al. For instance,West Bengal has the highest rate of hunger in rural households among major Indian states,according to the Congress report which cites a recent study conducted by Jean Dreze and Angus Deaton. According to the report,West Bengal,which held the second position among states in per capita income in 1960-61 and fifth in 1980-81,slipped to ninth slot in 2004-05. It has the second highest school dropout rate among major states. The level of learning of children in the state is lower than most other states. As many as 14 out of 18 districts in the state are among the 100 poorest districts in the country,the poorest district in India being Murshidabad in West Bengal,where 56 per cent of the people live in abject poverty,and 1.47 per cent of Indias rural poor live in this district alone. West Bengal is in one way unique because in no other state any government or any political party is continuously ruling for three decades. If you could not deliver the goods in one state,how can the people of India trust the Third Front under your leadership? asked External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee. On the possibility of an alliance with the Left parties after the elections,Mukherjee said,I am not an astrologer. I cant predict. In the realm of politics,everything is possible. He emphatically denied reports of disintegration of the UPA explaining that the UPA was not a political party. It was formed after the election to form the Government. There was,therefore,no question of its disintegration. As for the NDA,its constituents like the TDP,the Trinamool Congress and the AIADMK had quit it,he added. About the decision of some erstwhile Congress allies like the RJD,LJP and SP to come together,Mukherjee drew an analogy between politics and sports in which players join different teams only to come back to the national team when need arises.
