The sudden downpour followed by squalls tore the Ganashakti display on a roadside wooden board at Raja Subodh Mullick Square in central Kolkata.
Ganashakti is the mouthpiece of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). The idea behind displaying it on the wooden boards across the streets in Bengal is to draw the attention of those who cannot afford to buy the vernacular daily. This practice has been going on for decades.
Named after Subodh Chandra Basu Mallik – who was a freedom fighter, industrialist and philanthropist, the road junction witnessed major political activities during the Independence movement.
Back to the lane, Subodh Mullick Square, septuagenarian Sashi Mukherjee, a retired teacher, is not pleased with the sudden downpour. He curled up his wrinkled nose that was holding a pair of thick, foggy glasses and struggled to piece together the torn part of the Ganashakti with his ageing fingers to learn about the CPI(M)'s upcoming plans.
Hardcore CPI(M) supporters like 'Sashi da' may not have liked the rain which tore the Ganashakti sign but many in the party feel that it’s a signal of a strong comeback of the Left Front in Bengal.
Though, according to many political observers, it will be a near-impossible task for them to seize the corridors of power in the 2021 Bengal polls, the Left parties led by the CPI(M) have managed to wash away the tag of ‘insignificant’ in the state's politics.
In the past two years after reopening of all the party offices, the resilience of the Left Front has been felt in Bengal as the cadres are actively involved in various social welfare schemes with participation of youths in organising community kitchens, free ration and vegetable markets, safe housing, distribution of kits to students for studies and clothes to the poor and needy.
Among many social welfare initiatives, now the Left has set up Rs 50 health clinics and safe houses for the poor who cannot afford expensive medical care facilities in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic in the state.
Speaking to the News18.com, CPI(M) legislature Sujan Chakraborty said, “Our ideology is to work for the welfare of the people. Our country is passing through a huge economic and pandemic crisis and the poor people are the worst affected. There is no governance in Bengal and therefore we started nearly 700 Shramojibi Canteens (community kitchens). The response is very good.”
On plans for the future, he said, “Now, we are coming up with health units across the state where people can avail the facility by paying a nominal fee of Rs 50. Dr Faud Halim who is also a member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) is looking after the whole project. He has already started a Rs 50 dialysis facility for the poor. I am sure this healthcare unit will be a great relief for the people, when the state hospitals are overburdened with medical cases.”
The CPI(M) has converted nearly 30 party offices into safe homes for poor people who don’t have extra room at their dwellings for quarantining in case of Covid-19 infection.
But Chakraborty complained that they are not getting support from the state government in running these safe houses.
“To run such safe houses, we need permission from the state government, but unfortunately we are not getting any support from them,” he added.
Dr Faud Halim, who is supervising the Rs 50 health clinic project, had contested the 2019 Lok Sabha elections but lost to chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee. His father, Hasim Abdul Halim, was Bengal’s longest-serving assembly speaker who died in 2015.
Dr Halim’s five-bedded hospital which is attached to his Dr Md Ishaque Road house in Kolkata has already turned out to be a boon for many who need dialysis on a daily basis. His hospital has nine dialysis machines and he only charges Rs 50 per dialysis.
Only poor people used to visit his hospital but since the lockdown began, even those from the middle class are visiting him to avail medical facilities with their financial situation turning precarious and many losing jobs.
Nowadays, the communist parties are also focusing more on social media campaigns instead of wall graffiti and fiery handwritten posters.
Many believe that the CPI(M)’s firm footprint on social media platforms is a bid to stave off its looming irrelevance in the country’s political spectrum.
“Allow us to know you better. Are you interested in working with the CPI(M) on a digital platform? If as an individual you want to be a digital volunteer, please fill up this form (link to website) with required details,” reads a circular issued by the CPI(M).
“This has become very important nowadays when other parties are aggressively moving ahead with the digital plan. Soon after the previous assembly polls, the presence of the Left had dwindled but now slowly one can see that they are on the roads. Maybe their numbers are less but their presence is there across the state,” political expert Kapil Thakur said.
“In the previous Lok Sabha polls, the Left Front’s vote share was 7 per cent, but I think in the coming assembly polls the vote percentage of the Left Front will increase significantly. This is very significant because the rise of the Left Front means trouble for the BJP.”
While explaining more, Thakur said, in all the 294 assembly constituencies, if the Left Front-Congress combine manages to seize nearly 30,000 votes each, then it will be an advantage for the ruling Trinamool Congress. "If not, then it will favour the Bharatiya Janata Party," he said. "The reason is most of the Left votes went to the BJP as the TMC’s vote share was more or less the same. So, any significant gain in voting pattern towards the Left then it will go against the saffron brigade.”
A close look at Hooghly’s Khanakul, Basantapur in Arambagh, and Barasat and Duttapukur in North 24 Parganas reveals that not only CPI(M) party offices were reopened but the ‘comrades’ are working extensively for the people’s need through donation collected from door- to-door campaigning.
In Cooch Behar, the CPI(M) managed to reopen its party offices at Dinhata’s Nigamnagar, Bhetaguri and Pilkhana areas. The BJP performed creditably in North Bengal in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and the rise of the CPI(M) in Cooch Behar, Alipurduar and Siliguri could be a problem for the BJP in retaining his vote percentage.
In Bardhaman, Howrah, Bankura, Purulia, Jhargram, Malda, Dinajpur, South 24 Parganas and Birbhum also the Left Front managed to re-enter party offices with plans to regain people’s confidence.
Despite being in power for seven consecutive terms from 1977 to 2011, the Left Front – after Mamata Banerjee came to power – was hardly a force worthy of notice in West Bengal.
Once steered by strong leaders like Muzaffar Ahmad, Jyoti Basu, Hashi Dutta, Kamal Sarkar, Samar Mukherjee, Abdullah Rasool, Nirod Chakraborty, Mahadeb Saha, Anil Biswas, Pramode Dasgupta and Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, all the Left Front constituents were struggling to find their political space in the state.
The extent of the crisis was alarming and forced them to go for an alliance with the Congress to stay afloat in the state politics.
But now one can witness communist flags in most parts of Bengal.
“The young comrades are playing a crucial role in bringing the Left back on track. It will be foolish to overlook them in the context of the current political situation in Bengal. Maybe their presence looks minimal in front of TMC and BJP, but it is going to be significant considering the upcoming assembly polls because the Left is certainly going to increase its vote share,” Thakur said.
Presently, the CPI(M) and Congress are going ahead with a ‘heterogeneous composition’ to contest against the Trinamool and the BJP in the 2021 assembly polls in Bengal.
In the 2014 parliamentary polls, the CPI(M) managed to win only two seats in Bengal, after ruling the state for 34 years.
In the 2011 assembly elections, the Left Front’s vote share in the state was 39.6 per cent and the BJP’s was around 4 per cent. In 2016, the Left Front’s vote share dipped to nearly 26 per cent and the BJP’s increased to nearly 11 per cent.
Similarly, in the Lok Sabha polls, the BJP’s vote share increased from 6 per cent in 2009 to 17 per cent in 2014. On the other hand, the Left Front’s vote share dipped from 42 per cent in 2009 to around 30 per cent in 2014. In 2019, it decreased further by 7 per cent.
Presently, the CPI(M) and Congress are going ahead with a ‘heterogeneous composition’ to contest against the Trinamool and the BJP in the 2021 assembly polls in Bengal.
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