Calcutta, May 23: Lakshman Seth, whose land acquisition notice had triggered the trouble in Nandigram, today admitted that a section of CPM supporters had not voted for the party because of the land row.

“A large section of our supporters were confused because of the campaign by the Opposition and some of our partners against us. Many of them were scared that we would snatch away their land and held us responsible for the violence in Nandigram,” Seth told The Telegraph while trying to explain the CPM’s rout in Nandigram and the entire East Midnapore district.

He did not comment on whether what he called the “Nandigram cyclone” had also hit South 24-Parganas, across the Hooghly, and five other south Bengal districts where the CPM fared poorly. “It’s for the state leadership to comment.”

The CPM’s East Midnapore district committee today held its preliminary post-mortem of the debacle in the presence of state secretariat members Dipak Dasgupta and Surjya Kanta Mishra.

The party state committee will review the results on May 25 and 26. CPM general secretary Prakash Karat will attend the meeting.

Although party sources blamed the “the misinformation campaign” in Nandigram and Singur for the losses, they also said the “party machinery would have to be better equipped to face the situation”.

Emerging from a party state secretariat meeting, Jyoti Basu said the district committees had been asked to submit their reviews within a month. Basu, who had earlier expre-ssed his worry about the poll outcome, today refused to say if he was upset.

While the Left Front partners and a section of the CPM blamed the “hasty and forcible” land acquisition drive in fertile Singur and Nandigram for the debacle, chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and industries minister Nirupam Sen reserved comments.

“I will reflect on it after the state committee discusses it,’’ Bhattacharjee said when asked about the results’ impact on industrialisation.

Karat to Bhattacharjee, CPM leaders and party papers had often referred to “administrative and political mistakes” in Nandigram. But the state committee never reviewed the mistakes, as asked by the central committee.

Seth, also the chairman of the Haldia Development Authority that issued the acquisition notice in Nandigram last year, said: “The setback is temporary, we will overcome it.’

He defended the notice. “Whatever I did for land acquisition in Nandigram for the (chemical) hub was in accordance with the instructions of the industries department and the Centre. If I am turned into a villain, our party would also become villain,” Seth said.