RAJYA SABHA ELECTION-Shock for Left Front

been exactly a model of unity and cohesion for many years, broadly since the party split in the wake of Indira Gandhi's post-Emergency defeat in general elections in 1977. But the bitterness (and violence) that marks the intra-party relations these days is perhaps without a precedent. The state Congress's official leadership headed by Somen Mitra and ably supported by the state INTUC president Subrata Mukherji is now confronted by the state Youth Congress president, Mamata Ban- nerji MP, supported by two former union ministers, F R Das Munsi and Saugata Roy, both of them, incidentally, leading lights in the now dissolved anti-Indira splitaway Congress in the post-Emergency period.