Calcutta, July 2: The Opposition’s victory in the civic elections yesterday may have compelled Biman Bose to admit “people’s misgivings” against the CPM and the government, but party veteran Benoy Konar thinks voters made an unwise choice.

Konar first said “American and multinational companies” were trying to dislodge the communists from power. Then he added: “Our cadres may have shortcomings. But they can’t be equated with the Trinamul men. The people don’t realise that they have invited dacoits to replace petty thieves.”

In the civic poll results yesterday, the Opposition parties won in 13 of 16 municipalities.

Bose, the CPM state secretary, yesterday promised not to “belittle the people’s verdict”, though he said that the Opposition had launched a “smear campaign against the ruling Left with the help of a section of the media”.

However, an internal review of the party’s civic poll setback last year — the Left got only five of 13 municipalities that went to polls in June last year — revealed the extent of the rot in the CPM and its isolation from the people.

Its in-house confession about the degeneration of a large section of its rank and file is likely to explain the greater public drubbing this time.

“The local party is indifferent to the people’s legitimate grievances. The public interactions in the daily work of the municipality is neglected and limited to bureaucratic reports and filing returns. Our civic staff would harass people without reason. Corruption was rampant,” said the party state committee’s post-poll draft review after the defeat in Guskara in Burdwan, known as a CPM bastion.

“Our party workers had become contractors and land brokers and were involved in collection of illegal funds from real estate promoters as well as usury. Some were running gambling dens and chit fund rackets. There was no parity in their income and expenditure, ’’ the review said.

The report also pointed out that faction feuds and clashes of personal interests of leaders while nominating candidates and subsequent “sabotage” contributed to the defeat last year. “The lack of credibility of the (local) party leadership and a section of the party cadres also isolated us from the people who taught us a lesson.”

The report admitted that the CPM’s failure to “influence voters with its campaign against the Indo-US nuke deal”. Also, a controversy over land acquisition for real estate and projects like a health city became a hurdle, for example in Burdwan.

It is not that the CPM leadership was not aware of the problems plaguing the party, government and the locals bodies it runs. The CPM state committee and the chief minister had earlier said the party and government had failed to run panchayats and municipalities in the interest of the rural and urban poor.

But some like veteran Konar still refuse to accept the degeneration.