West Bengal communists lose votes over land seizures

By Sujoy Dhar

KOLKATA, India (Reuters) - The ruling communists in West Bengal have suffered election setbacks in two districts where their controversial seizure of land for industry lost them support from thousands of poor farmers.

A coalition led by the Communist Party of India-Marxist, or CPI(M), has run the state for about three decades. But state-wide local government elections saw a backlash against its attempts to attract industry.

Vote results were published late on Wednesday.

The communists prop up the national Congress-led government in parliament. This electoral blow could make them more inclined to put the brakes on the government's industrialisation policies ahead of general elections due by early 2009.

While winning overall in West Bengal, the CPI(M) was routed in Singur, where the state government seized fertile farmland to set up a factory for Tata Motors' Nano car, hailed as the world's cheapest. Farmers have protested against the factory's construction.

The party also lost in Nandigram, a cluster of villagers where a move to take over thousands of acres of land for an industrial complex and a chemical hub sparked protests.

Dozens of farmers have been killed in clashes with police and communist party cadres since 2007 in Nandigram, and the violence forced the national government to suspend plans to set up special low-tax industrial zones across the country.

The CPI(M) coalition won 13 out of 17 districts that went to the polls in West Bengal, which has a population of 80 million.