Kolkata: All eyes are on West Bengal today as the counting of votes in the recently held civic polls for 81 civic bodies takes place in the state. The most hard-fought contest is, of course, for the Kolkata Municipal Corporation which the Left snatched from the Trinamool in 2005.
These polls are seen as the semi-finals ahead of the Assembly elections next year. It will be a test of might between both the ruling CPM and Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress.
Congress and Trinamool may be allies at the Centre, but they are rivals in West Bengal as the two parties couldn't agree on seat sharing and have gone separate ways in the civic polls.
Political analysts feel the CPM might stand to gain with opposition votes splitting.
In the run up to the polls, Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and his arch rival Mamata Banerjee often flung accusations and counter-accusations.
All the three major players - the Left, Trinamool Congress and Congress -- have a lot at stake in the polls.
The results are expected to give enough indications on whether Mamata Banerjee will ride to power in the Assembly polls due next May. The Trinamool leader campaigned vigorously for the polls.
Trinamool parted ways with the Congress for the civic polls and may choose to go alone in the Assembly elections if they win.
For Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, split opposition may be a good news.
A good showing by the Left can be projected as their revival from the debacle of the last Lok Sabha elections when it won just 15 seats out of 42 against Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee's 19.