By Tirthankar Mitra
Left movement history in West Bengal is traversing a new trajectory at Naihati assembly by-election as for the first time a CPI(M-L) Liberation candidate is contesting with the support of Left Front. But the fact remains Trinamool Congress candidate, Sanat Dey and BJP nominee Rupak Mitra are the principal contestants of this bypoll though the situation is symptomatic of emergence of greater left unity in the days to come.
But such possibilities of ideological coalition have been pushed aside post the three heads of East Bengal, Mohan Bagan and Mohameddan Sporting clubs, the triumvirate who are the apex of state football endorsing the candidature of Sanat Dey, the TMC nominee. The present chief of Indian Football Association following the footsteps of the trio, has boosted the morale of the TMC rank and file.
Incidentally, both CPI(M-L) Liberation nominee Debajyoti Majumdar and the BJP candidate Rupak Mitra are banking on the fallout of the rape and murder of a woman doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital. Once a CPI( M) stronghold, Naihati has been a Trinamool bastion for more than a decade.
In this backdrop, local people of Naihati were surprised when a joint protest march was taken out by activists from both Liberation and CPI(M) against the RG Kar outrage. It was tried to be broken up but the processionists stood their ground giving rise to a new found bonhomie between two groups who are ideologically poles apart. And fought bitter battles against each other in the sixties and the seventies of the last century.
The CPI(,M) support to Liberation at Naihati is a reciprocal act to regain lost ground of the Left in a constituency where the presence of factory workers, considered to be natural Left supporters was once considerable. During the three month old R G Kar doctors movement also, the CPI(M) and the CPI(ML) supporters worked jointly
A trend over the past eight years has been traditional Left votes have been cast in favour of the saffron camp candidates. Majumdar, the Liberation nominee is looking forward to regain this support base.. The CPI(ML)-L nominee is known much in the area, his campaign is getting full backing of the CPI(M) workers who ruled over this labour-dominated constituency during the Left Front rule.
Arguably in a fillip to his efforts, another left party outside the Left Front SUCI(C) has not fielded any nominee in this constituency. Even then, if the voting pattern over the past few two elections is any indication, TMC’s social welfare schemes like Lakshmir Bhander and other schemes of the Mamata government is likely to outweigh the fallout of the RG Kar incident.
The TMC candidate Dey’s claim to fame is his role to alleviate people’s problem during the pandemic. Naihati stadium had been turned into a 282-bed safe home during pandemic under Dey’s efforts and this has endeared him to the masses.
The Liberation nominee Majumdar has wide acceptability among the workers’ if the closed mills like Gouripur jute mills. Even if their places of work are yet to reopen, his efforts to open the closed factories have earned him their loyalty
Paresh Sarkar, the Congress candidate is known for his social work. The BJP candidate Rupak Mitra felt that the fallout of RG Kar and the acceptability of his party in this mixed population constituency will see him through.
Even if they are loath to admit it, both Liberation and BJP are eyeing the position of the runners up. Indeed victory of a candidate other than TMC is a tall order with Trinamool nominee Partha Bhowmik, now a member of Lok Sabha representing this assembly since 2011 elections.
He vacated this seat to be elected as the TMC MP from Barrackpore this year. The TMC leadership is chary of the fact that the party’s victory margin in this Assembly segment has reduced in the recent Lok Sabha polls vis-a-vis the 2021 Assembly polls.
But it is small consolation for the other contestants. Like it or not, neither the BJP nor the Congress or the Left-supported Liberation nominee has the organisational muscle to capitalise on slight slump in the TMC victory margin.
Yet if the Liberation nominee’s vote share in this bypoll is more than the BJP candidate, the Left will consider it to be a turning point in its electoral fortune. The comeback trail has been eluding the Left for more than a decade and it is leaving no stone unturned to achieve it in the Naihati bypoll. (IPA Service)