Calcutta, July 2: If Prakash Karat takes his eyes off the nuclear agreement and runs them over the Bengal municipal election results announced today, he could end up praying for a Mulayam-Manmohan deal that staves off early polls.

Four of the 13 Bengal towns where civic polls were held slipped out of the Left Front’s hands, the CPM standing out as the almost lone loser in the local elections. Of the four municipalities the Left lost, three were under the CPM’s control. The Trinamul Congress and the Congress won four boards each. (See chart)

The Opposition as well as Left allies Forward Bloc and RSP maintained their sway wherever they were in power, making the CPM’s humiliation complete and robbing the party of a chance to blame anti-incumbency.

The CPM’s setback in the semi-urban areas came close on the heels of the staggering blows in the panchayat polls, further clouding the prospects if general elections are held early.

Left Front leaders this evening conceded in private that they feared the loss of around 20 Lok Sabha seats (the alliance had won 35 of the 42 constituencies in 2004) if elections were held now and the Opposition put up a united fight. After the panchayat polls, the leaders had put the possible loss at 10 seats.

Although the towns were expected to more or less reflect the trend thrown up by the rural polls in May, the CPM appears to have been stunned by the defeat in Guskara in Burdwan district.

Burdwan is a Marxist bastion and home to the government’s second-in-command and industrialisation spearhead, Nirupam Sen, as well as party veteran Benoy Konar. In Burdwan town, which falls in Sen’s constituency, Trinamul’s tally rose from one to five, although the CPM retained hold over the 35-member board.

“We didn’t expect this. Now we have to probe the results and draw the proper lessons,’’ said Konar.

He blamed a “one-to-one fight” put up by a “grand alliance of the Opposition” — something that has been eating the CPM ever since a breach with the Centre over the nuclear deal began to look like a distinct possibility.

Both the Congress and Trinamul played on the CPM’s fear today by exchanging promises of help to form municipal boards.

“We will help the Congress form the municipal boards in Dubrajpur and Alipurduar, where the party is short of an absolute majority,” Mamata Banerjee said. State Congress president Priya Ranjan Das Munshi reciprocated the gesture by promising to “help Trinamul form the boards wherever it doesn’t have the numbers”.

Although Konar smelt an understanding among the Opposition parties, there were stiff contests between the Congress and Trinamul in several municipalities.

Unlike Konar, Burdwan district CPM secretary Amal Haldar pointed a finger at land acquisition, the whipping boy after Nandigram. “Among other factors, land acquisition close to Burdwan town for a health city there could have played a part in it,” Haldar said.

However, except in Diamond Harbour and Burdwan, no significant land acquisition drive had been planned or carried out in the towns where the elections took place this Sunday.

Some CPM leaders blamed corruption and alleged links between the party cadres and land sharks for the setback.

The Bloc and the RSP, the recalcitrant Left allies which kept criticising the CPM in public, held on to the two municipalities they controlled.

The Bloc went one up in Mekhliganj in Cooch Behar by ensuring the victory of “dummy candidates” who took on the CPM.