Kolkata, Aug 31 - Facing anti-incumbency after 32 years in power, West Bengal's ruling Left Front Monday sought to enthuse its cadres by organising a massive rally in the city to mark 50 years of a mass movement against food shortages.

Six weeks after Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee-led main opposition Trinamool Congress mobilised lakhs of people in its annual martyrs' day rally on July 21 close to the venue of the Front programme, Monday's meeting was a show of strength by the ruling combine after a series of recent electoral losses.

The Trinamool-led opposition's spectacular performances in the polls to rural and civic bodies, Lok Sabha and assembly by-elections, have cast doubts on whether the Front can stretch its marathon stint in power beyond the 2011 state assembly elections.

On top of that, Banerjee's almost daily announcements of new trains and other railway projects and political statements aimed at weaning away the front base by utilising her ministry have also put the ruling coalition under pressure.

In a written message to the rally, ailing Marxist patriarch Jyoti Basu urged the left workers to go to the people and regain the confidence of those who have turned against the state government.

'Work for the people. We should not lose faith in the people, even those of our former supporters who have gone against us. We must not think of them as our enemies. We have to bring these people back to our fold,' the nonagenarian leader said in the missive read out by Left Front chairman Biman Bose.

'I have confidence that the people of our state will never allow opportunistic and anti-left forces to come to power,' said Basu, who was state chief minister from 1977 to 2000. Under his leadership, the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) led Left Front won five Assembly polls.

Cautioning the people that canards were being spread dime a dozen against the Front, Basu asked the gathering to take a pledge for making a turnaround in the combine's fortunes.