Calcutta, Dec. 2: The balance of power has broadly remained unchanged in the four municipalities that voted last Sunday, with the CPM and the Congress splitting them evenly. But a closer look at the results announced today reveals important lessons for all parties ahead of the general election.

The pattern of voting in the 116 wards across the four seats, with 9.86 lakh voters, suggests Mamata would have benefited had she forged a durable alliance with the Congress in the districts where Trinamul continues to be weak.

By convincingly winning Behrampore and Krishnagar, the Congress has proved that Mamata’s pro-farmer campaign has not earned her the “real Congress” label she craves.

In spite of retaining power in Howrah and Jhargram, the CPM must appreciate it needs its allies to win elections and has to mend relations with them. Squabbling among the Left partners had cost them dear in the panchayat elections, but the slide has been stemmed this time with the alliance putting up a more united front.

“We are very happy with our performance in Jhargram,” CPM secretary and Left Front chairman Biman Bose said. “As for our showing in the rest, we will have to review it with our allies.”

For the Left, defensive after the land acquisition trouble, resistance to industrialisation and the tribal unrest, the win in Jhargram in West Midnapore is a big boost.

The Left had won the municipality in 2003, too, but the significance of today’s victory is that the Congress, Trinamul, the Jharkhand Party and a few other opposition groups had teamed up against it. Still, the CPM increased its 2003 tally by one to finish with 11 wards, and ally CPI managed to hold on to two wards. CPM also wrested a ward that since 1984 had been under the control first of the Congress and then Trinamul.

Jhargram, like many parts of the district, has been witness to a volatile tribal movement against “police excesses and under-development”. An unruly combine of Trinamul, SUCI, Maoists, BJP and several others is fanning the movement, which has turned violent in places like Lalgarh. Jhargram has over 10 per cent tribal voters.

The CPM leadership appears to see the election results as a success of its drive to arrest the post-panchayat slide, that was aggravated by Mamata’s campaign on Nano and Nandigram.

Although the Trinamul leadership put up a brave front and tried to show off the 18 wards it has won, party managers privately expressed disappointment. They had hoped that Mamata’s high-decibel campaign on emotive land and industry issues as well as the success in the panchayat election — the municipalities that went to polls are close to rural areas — would help them.

Trinamul MLA Partho Chatterjee said: “You can interpret our performance in several ways. At one level, it is good. We started from zero in Krishnagar to end up with eight seats.” The party had increased its tally in Howrah where it had eaten into Left votes, he added.

“But, at another level, there is no denying that the performance is not so big as it was in the panchayat election. We will analyse the reasons,” the leader of the Opposition said.

One reason Trinamul fared below expectations, political observers said, was Mamata’s failure to pair with the Congress.

By retaining Behrampore and Krishnagar in the face of assaults from the Left and Trinamul, the state Congress, rudderless since Priya Ranjan Das Munshi’s hospitalisation, has proved to Mamata that she has failed to wean away Congress voters.

A quick analysis shows that the Left would have found the going tougher in Howrah had it been up against a Mamata-Congress combine. The two parties, which have together won 16 seats now, could have had a much better tally because Opposition votes would not be split.

“The Congress has been able to keep Behrampore under its control because of committed Congress votes, tradition of anti-Leftism and a superior organisation,” Somen Mitra, a former state Congress president, said. “We will be simplifying politics if we attribute the success to one or two individuals (a reference to Adhir Choudhury, the local MP). Whoever stands on a Congress ticket in Behrampore or Murshidabad will win.”