Left diminished in Bengal, Communist parties go for self-introspection

Is the Communist story over in West Bengal, the state that comrades ruled for 34 long years on the trot till 2011? This question is haunting the CPI(M)-led Left Front ever since it has been foxed in the just concluded parliamentary elections by a false dawn.

To find the answer to the question, the largest of the front constituents, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), will do a month-long audit of its performance in July.

“The assessment will continue throughout July from block to district levels. We will also take feedback from our supporters and intellectuals,” CPI (M) state secretary Mohmmad Salim told media persons.

Public opinion

The CPI(M)’s youth wing, the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI), will also go door-to-door seeking public opinion as to how to improve the party’s image and performance.

The findings will be then evaluated at the CPI(M) extended state committee meeting, to be held on August 23 at Kalyani in West Bengal's Nadia district to chart a future course of action.

Poor keep away

A preliminary internal survey of the party on the poll debacle observed that Left-liberals felt Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress was better placed to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The survey also pointed out that the Left has failed to win back the support of the poor and proletarians, who have moved to the TMC-fold because of its various welfare schemes.

Many Left candidates made a mistake by mocking schemes such as Lakshmir Bhandar as mere alms, said the survey.

The party has now asked its leaders, supporters and sympathisers to refrain from taking digs at the TMC’s welfarism.

Cause for optimism

The Left Front leaders thought they saw clear signs of revival during the campaigning. They had reasons to be optimistic. The rallies and meetings of the Left-Congress joint candidates drew huge crowds.

Moreover, the Left trajectory was also on the rise in the rural and civic body elections, in which it had finished ahead of the BJP in vote share.

All these positives came to naught in the Lok Sabha election outcome. The Left not only failed to win a single seat in the state, but also saw its vote share drop by 0.66 per cent against the 2019 general elections.

Congress debacle

Even its electoral ally, the Congress, went downhill. Its seat tally slid to one from two and the vote share to 4.68 per cent from 5.67 per cent. All but two of the Left candidates lost their security deposits contesting 29 seats. The Congress contested 13 seats, forfeiting deposits in eight.

Unlike in the civic and rural polls, the Left did not come across to voters as a credible alternative to the TMC. The anti-TMC votes went to the BJP, as per the party’s initial appraisal.

Lack of funds and poor organisational presence at the grassroots are also attributed for the Front’s poor showing.

The CPI(M), however, could find some silver linings even in the otherwise dark cloud. The convincing defeat of the BJP made it believe that the Left-liberal forces are still an important electoral factor in the state.

New leaders

The best takeaway, it felt, is the emergence of future-ready young leaders.

“There are many positives despite our poor performance in Bengal. Our campaigning got good responses with the emergence of a new set of young leaders. We got a new party in Bengal,” observed CPI (M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury.

A section of the Left Front leaders does not, however, share the same optimism about the CPI(M)’s experiment with the young brigade.

“These young leaders no doubt have pulled crowds during the campaign as they are good orators groomed in television debates and university seminars. Successful Communist leaders of the past mostly came out of trade union or farmers’ movements and so they had a ready mass base. These new generation leaders, directly imported from campuses, need to create their own mass bases through mass movements,” said a Front leader who preferred anonymity.

Arrogant Marxists?

He also suggested that the CPI(M) needs to come off its high horse to be more accommodative to its smaller partner to make the Left Front more cohesive on the ground.

A proposal for merger of Left parties could not be taken forward because of the strong opposition from the CPI (M), many Left leaders pointed out.

Endorsing the Front leader's view, political commentator and author Amal Sarkar pointed out that it does not have joint committees at the grassroots, making the alliance a very superficial election-driven alliance.

“The need of the hour is a larger Left unity and also expansion of the ambit of the front to include parties like Congress as its permanent entity and not merely an electoral ally,” Sarkar explained.