Kolkata's Communists Face Eviction
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For the first time, Rajesh Babani won't vote for West Bengal's communists, joining a revolt that may end the rule of the world's longest-serving elected Marxist government. The reason: His two sons can't find jobs.
"Almost everyone around here is searching for work," says Babani, 43, as he leans against the wall of a teashop painted with the Left Front's hammer-and-sickle motifs in a slum in Kolkata, the state capital. Babani, who works only 100 days a year as a roadsweeper, will vote in elections that started on Apr. 18. Polls say the state will be won by the All India Trinamool Congress party, an ally of the ruling Congress coalition in Delhi.