ABSTRACT
West Bengal has boasted of a rich legacy of leftist politics going back to the pre-independence times and in the aftermath of the collapse of the Congress party’s unilateral domination of the national scenario in 1967, the leftists became part of two United Front governments in late 1960s. From mid-1990s, in the aftermath of the market-ward shift in Indian economy, Left Front Government (LFG) began to implement an investor-friendly industrial policy in West Bengal which aimed at dispelling the evidently entrenched perception of native and foreign investors about working class intransigence instigated by leftist-led trade unions. LFG accessed the seat of power in West Bengal in 1977 raising enormous promise especially among the marginal and downtrodden; and despite the discernible shift it brought about in rural governance through the combination of land reforms and panchayat institutions, much of the early promise remained unfulfilled.
