ABSTRACT
The Naxalite decade came to a close in West Bengal in 1977 with the Left Front coming to power in the state. With the establishment of the Left Front government the politics of rebellion as the chief feature of the state was over. The Left Front had been set up after the repressive climate of the Emergency was relaxed in January 1977. The six founding parties of the Left Front were the Communist Party of India (Marxist) or the CPI (M) as the main force of the Front, and other partners being the All India Forward Bloc (AIFB), the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP), the Marxist Forward Bloc (MFB), the Revolutionary Communist Party of India (RCPI), and the Biplabi Bangla Congress (BBC). They articulated a common programme. Over the years, the Left Front, though joined by among others the Communist Party of India (CPI) in 1982, came to be increasingly controlled and micro-managed by the CPI (M), so much so that towards the end of its rule, Left Front and the CPI (M) had become almost synonymous in common use. Once it achieved victory in 1977, the Left Front stayed in power for the next 34 years.
