Kolkata, May 21 (IANS) Arrogance of the leaders and rampant corruption led to the defeat of West Bengal’s ruling Left Front in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, a senior minister said here Thursday.
“Our arrogance proved our undoing,” Communist Party of India (CPI) leader and Minister for Water Resources Investigation and Development Nanda Gopal Bhattacharya told the media at the state secretariat ‘Writers Buildings’.

Bhattacharya said the people believed that there was “rampant corruption in the leadership”.

“The people’s verdict also went against us for our conceited behaviour. People also believed there was rampant corruption among the leadership,” he said.

“We don’t even give the least respect to the masses. The ordinary people are not treated as human beings. All these things worked in the minds of the common people and led to our isolation,” he said after attending a cabinet meeting.

Bhattacharya said all front partners would now have to reach out to the masses to get back their support.

The Left Front - in power since 1977 - lost the Lok Sabha polls, managing to get only 15 of the 42 seats in the state. While main opposition Trinamool Congress won 19 seats, its alliance partners Congress and Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI) secured six and one seat, respectively.