kolkata there are turning points in the lives of politicians when they are transformed from mere leaders into symbols of a larger radical change this election was one such turning point for buddhadeb bhattacharjee today the 62yearold west bengal cm has emerged as the face of the new indian left as it struggles to leave behind dogma to deal with a changing worldsome have already likened buddha to chinas deng xiaoping the reformer who brushed aside the quibbling over means to achieve his end of making china an economic powerhouse indeed reforms and west bengals development have also been buddhas mantra and it has found resonance among the bengali middle class as well as the states industrialists sections that were traditionally hostile to the cpmwhile buddhas pragmatism has been facilitated by an approving marxist brass the mammoth victory will be seen as a direct outcome of buddhas leadership his infectious optimism about the state and the apparent lack of patience for conventional wisdom which has that won him many new admirers among them noted west bengal industrialists like harsh neotia rajive kaul sanjiv goenka and hemant kanoria thursdays massive victory the left won 235 seats in the 294member assembly leaving 21 to congress and 29 to trinamul vindicated buddhas change agendabuddha has emerged from the shadows of his giant predecessor jyoti basu as a leader in his own right he has also won a victory thats erased the rigging stigma in the last salt lake civic elections he had spoken of the charge and said it wasnt healthy for his partys name to be sullied with the allegation of latching on to power through unfair meansfor even after the election commission tightened its screws the cpms tally of votes improved unlike 2001 when the party fell short of single majority with 143 seats the party this time has bagged 176 seats one short of 177 it won in 1977cpm apparatchiks in alimuddin street werent expecting such a landslide party state secretary biman bose had earlier predicted a count of 203 for the left front