Action hour? CPM’s candidate for Calcutta mayor, Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, nurses his fractured leg at home far from the heat and (above) dust of campaigning as a Rapid Action Force jawan patrols Kasba in south Calcutta in the run-up to the June 19 elections. Pictures by Aranya Sen and Amit Datta

Calcutta, June 7: Faced with a barrage of criticism, the CPM today decided to probe the “abnormally” high rate of polling in some areas, particularly the Barrackpore industrial belt and Hooghly, during last month’s election to 79 municipalities.

“Our attention has been drawn to the abnormally high rate of polling in some areas, particularly the industrial belt. We have sought reports from the district committees on this score,” state CPM secretary Anil Biswas said today.

Briefing reporters about the deliberations of today’s state committee meeting, Biswas said the complaints regarding “irregularities concerning voting in some pockets” would be looked into. “We will be able to clarify the party’s stand after getting comprehensive reports from the districts concerned,” he added.

Over 80 per cent voting was reported from Titagarh, Khardah, North Barrackpore, Garulia and Kamarhati municipality areas of North 24-Parganas. At Arambagh and Tarakeswar in Hooghly, it was nearly 90 per cent. The CPM bagged all of them leaving rivals behind by a fair distance.

At today’s meeting, insiders said, some members voiced protest against the manner in which the party bagged over 80 per cent votes in some areas. They suggested that such a high percentage might taint the party’s overall performance in the municipal polls.

Biswas, who submitted a detailed report on the election results today, announced that the Left Front had won a record 61.6 per cent of the seats, bagging 48 municipalities. It had 33 in the 2000 elections.

The report says the vote share of Left Front nominees has increased by 8 per cent.

A party leader said the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government’s reforms in various sectors have helped the Front increase its votes. “The Opposition’s campaign against us has had no bearing on voters.”

Biswas said the municipal poll performance has established that the party has not only bagged votes of the lower middle-class but also a vast section of the upper middle-class.

The Congress, which won 13 municipalities in 2000, has bagged only 10 this time, Biswas said. The Trinamul Congress-BJP combine has won only two municipalities against eight in the previous elections.

“There is also no denying that our votes have decreased in 14 municipalities, though they have increased in 65. We could have won three more municipalities with 1 per cent more,” Biswas added.

The politburo member expressed concern over the 2 per cent rise in the Congress’s vote share. “Though the Congress has lost three municipalities, its vote share has increased by 2 per cent. The Trinamul-BJP’s votes have come down by 7 per cent,” he said, but refused to attach much importance to the Congress’s emergence as the main Opposition party.

Industries minister Nirupam Sen explained the circumstances in which the party has fashioned its approach to economic issues and offered a perspective on certain policies in the party’s political and organisational report adopted in the April Congress.