Wrong numbers The colour red in West Bengal is running. But if the election results are anything to go by, it will be some time before the red fades. Margins in constituencies where the left has registered victories provide evidence that there has been a noticeable erosion in the left?s support base. The tally of the Trinamool Congress is nowhere near what Ms Mamata Banerjee?s admirers had expected but the Trinamool Congress has increased both its tally and its vote share. The Bharatiya Janata Party, which won its first Lok Sabha seat in West Bengal in the previous elections, has not only retained that seat but has added one more. The BJP now has a toe-hold in West Bengal. Even the Congress, in shambles in the state, has managed to win three seats. All these show that West Bengal is no longer the red fort it was once deemed to be. The left has only itself to blame for this decline in its support. It has ruled West Bengal for 22 years and it would be odd to suggest that for the first time in two decades the left has fallen victim to the play of anti-incumbency factors. The results, in fact, articulate a strong disapproval of and anger against the rule of the Left Front, the hollowness of its policies and the high handedness of its cadres. Backroom boys in Alimuddin Street, the headquarters of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), when they do their post-mortem will not fail to notice that the left is on a slippery slope in the state. Despite erosions the left continues to hold sway over West Bengal. The secret of this success lies in the very idea of a Left Front: the left does not allow the votes in its favour to be split. Supporters of various left parties, whatever be their party affiliations, cast their vote in favour of the Left Front candidate. Since the last elections ? which is the time when popular disgruntlement with left rule became apparent ? the anti-left votes get divided between the Congress and Trinamool Congress. Unless these two parties come together or arrive at some kind of electoral understanding, the prospects of dislodging the Left Front will recede into the horizon. Those opposed to the left must take a leaf from the left?s book and learn the importance of not dividing votes. There is one other factor to be considered. There is a substantial Muslim population in West Bengal. The left now garners these votes. A united anti-left front must seek to make inroads into this vote bank. For such a strategy to be feasible, the BJP has to be ruled out from any formation which has the aim of removing the Left Front. Without fulfilling these necessary conditions, Ms Banerjee, the sole anti-left spokesperson, will find that she is battling valiantly against simple arithmetic. Rhetoric will always lose to numbers.