Left routed in his one-time bastion of West Bengal, recovery very tough

Nothing can be more telling than the landslide victory of Narendra Modi-led BJP and the complete decimation of the Left Front in West Bengal because the latter has been opposed to everything the saffron party stands for and vice-versa. The BJP has not defeated the Left in West Bengal; it is the TMC chief Mamata Banerjee who has achieved her mission - totally destroy the Left Front in West Bengal.

The Left has suffered its worst ever defeat like the Congress in this election. Its totally tally in the Lok Sabha has gone down to a single digit. From 60 seats in 2004 to less than 10 in the current election hit by Modi wave. What a fall!

The Left has managed to win a few seats in Kerala and two seats in its last bastion Tripura. The CPM-led Left Front is shaken beyond belief, but it is not ready to accept its rout.

After the results were announced, a CPM leader said, "Results do not reflect popular support for Left and CPM. Results in WB are distorted. There was widespread rigging, violence and intimidation and EC failed to intervene to rectify the situation. We will do everything to protect the party's base in WB."

A few years ago, the same Left Front was accused of doing the same things to win the elections in West Bengal. It seems the life has come full circle for the Red party.

Left Front's decline started in 2009. It won less than 20 seats in that election and the victorious Congress said that its opposition to the India-US nuclear deal was responsible its defeat.

Two years later, Mamata Banerjee stormed into the Left citadel in West Bengal. Mamata took on the Left systematically and strengthened her hold over rural areas across Bengal.

The Left cadres also deserted the party in hordes after realising that there is no future in the party for them.

The sane advice of some of its more pragmatic members to reform and modernise the party was met with stiff resistance from the old guard. In the name of protecting 'secularism' and working class interests the Left opposed almost everything the BJP did and failed to counter Mamata Banerjee in its one time bastion Bengal.

According to some political analysts, the rigid top echelons of the party have made the party totally irrelevant and unattractive. It an irony that the two oldest political parties in India - the Congress and the Left - have now come together in their grief.

Can the Left come back? Most say very tough. Some say almost impossible.