Kolkata: Assembly elections in West Bengal are due in May next year but the crucial semi-finals are on today, with 81 civic bodies across the state going to the polls.
Over 85 lakh voters will cast their ballot to decide the fate of the parties in the fray - the Left, the Congress and the Trinamool Congress.
Tensions are high in the state and 71 companies of paramilitary forces have been deployed to ensure the polls go off without any violence.
The upshot is, most of the 1792 wards in the 81 civic bodies will see triangular contests which could marginally benefit the Left.
In 2005, of the 81 civic bodies, the Left held 54.
The most hard-fought contest is, of course, for the Kolkata Municipal Corporation which the Left snatched from the Trinamool in 2005.
The polls are crucial for all the three parties. Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee needs to demonstrate that his Left Front has recovered from the debacle of the Lok Sabha elections last year when it won just 15 seats out of 42 against Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee's 19.
Mamata Banerjee needs to show that the Lok Sabha results were not just a one-off thing but a trend in her favour and the Congress needs to prove it is still a force in the state.
Political equations have changed since May last year. Then, the Congress and Trinamool were allies in the state. They are still allies at the Centre but in Bengal, the alliance has broken down with the two parties failing to agree over a seat sharing formula.
During the campaign, Congress leader and Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee spent as much time taking pot shots at each other as attacking the Left.
The top issues for the civic polls should have been sadak, pani and bijli but with the elections being seen as a mini-Assembly poll, it is Nandigram and Singur and the Sachchar Committee report that has dominated the campaign.