The assembly elections in West Bengal in April/May 2021 has opened up a debate on what should be the correct strategy of the Left to combat the aggressive BJP in the state which is currently ruled by the Trinamul Congress led by Mamata Banerjee. Mamata ousted the CPI(M) led state government in 2011 after its uninterrupted reign of 34 years and in the last years, the CPI(M) and other parties have been consistently losing their bases to both Trinamul and the BJP.
There are differences in the Left, especially between the CPI(M) and the CPI(ML) on the approach of fighting BJP and Trinamul in West Bengal. While the CPI(M) is for fighting Trinamul and BJP simultaneously, the CPI(ML) which recorded significant victory in recent elections in Bihar is of the view that the BJP is the main enemy in West Bengal, not Trinamul, while the CPI(M) feels that the Left has to fight both Trinamul and the BJP simultaneously.
Once again just ahead of the election to West Bengal assembly the issue of supporting the Trinamul Congress of Mamata Banerjee has emerged in a major way. The entire West Bengal CPI(M) nurses the view that TMC must be defeated even if the BJP wins the elections. It appears that the CPI(M) which could not protect its own Left Front government in 2011 from the onslaught of Mamata Banerjee’s Nandigram agitation would succeed in throwing out the BJP government in 2026 elections.
Their stand on the TMC makes it explicit that the CPI(M) leadership is more guided by their sectarian vision than a pragmatic view and what is worse they have decided not to take lessons from their past mistakes. They are sure that the time will wait for them. Else they would not have been firm on committing hara-kiri. It is a known fact that the most of the CPI(M) workers had shifted to the BJP after coming of TMC in power. During these last years they have got completely regimented and form the core of the saffron brigade. May be some of them prefer to come back and re-join the Marxist outfit, but it would be utopian to believe that there be an exodus. If these ex-cadres had decided to come back, they could well had done this in the last assembly election.
The CPI(M) instead of pursuing its own dogmatic line inculcate the habit of listening to others. The CPI(ML) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya has already come out with some concrete and pragmatic suggestion. He said the Left in Bengal should identify the BJP and not TMC as the enemy. “So far, many in the Left have been treating Trinamul as the Number One target because it is in power. But the BJP is the growing danger in Bengal. Rather than competing with the BJP in opposing Trinamul, it should be the other way round…. the BJP has to be recognised as the biggest threat to democracy across the country and in Bengal. One of the problems in Bengal is that many of our comrades there are not viewing state politics in the context of national politics.”
Ironically the CPI(M) leadership was quick to rebut him. If the Left Front chairman Biman Bose quipped, “the question of forming an alliance with Trinamul in Bengal, for elections or otherwise, does not arise. The Left will fight both the BJP and Trinamul here”, the stand of his general secretary was quite intriguing, “it would be wrong to assume that joining forces against the BJP in Bengal would benefit anybody but the saffron camp. Without fighting Trinamul, the BJP cannot be fought in Bengal.”
Yechury’s observation did not reflect the imperatives of the eisting situation; “Trinamul has been in power in Bengal and there is massive popular discontent against it. If all non-BJP forces stand with Trinamul in Bengal, with the BJP in the Opposition, who other than the BJP will benefit from it?” None can deny, not even Yechury himself, that the approach of the CPI(M) in Bihar was quite ambivalent and erratic. If the CPI(ML) had not taken the initiative the CPI(M) would not have even these two seats.
The two senior leaders have serious differences about the nature of the TMC government. While Bose dubs the TMC government as communal, Yechury refrains from describing it as communal and simply feels that the incumbency is high. Obviously it is high. No doubt that TMC has miserably failed on many counts. But that does not mean that the CPI(M) should hand over victory to BJP on silver plate.
If the CPI(M) leadership feels that it is capable of fighting the BJP then why they have been maintaining a passive attitude towards ir for over these years. They also did not take to streets on a major way against the mishandling of the labour migration during the pandemic. They simply registered their presence.
Left Front has the history of late realisation. They are set to repeat the Historic Blunder. They must not nurse any illusion. If they cannot take on Mamata during these years, it is beyond their grit to take the BJP head on. The fact is the leadership even does not adopt aggressive stand on opposing the anti-people policies and programmes of the BJP. Bose has raised the issue of TMC not having ideology, morality or ethics. He may be absolutely right. But the fact remains that in the present period no party could claim to uphold these. These are turning out to be rare commodities.
The opposition of the CPI(M) to Dipankar’s suggestion owes more to its hatred for it since the days of the formation of CPI(ML). The CPI(M) must be pragmatic in its evaluation of the present political crisis and situation. Already the party has lost its all India relevance and status due to its wrong handling of the issue of support to UPA government. It has already lost its ground considerable ground in West Bengal.
Dipankar is right in his observation; “The Bengal elections are very crucial this time and the people feel inspired by Bihar’s example. It is our next station. We will try to put up a fight together with other Left parties”. What is significant Dipankar has not come out with the suggestion to forge an alliance. The CPI(M) can work for forging a democratic left front and can have seat sharing arrangement with the TMC.
Yechury must concede that the CPI(M) which was on consistently slipping out of the political scene of Bihar could win two seats due to the CPI(ML)’s endeavours. Being a national leader he must have a wider vision. This was the Left’s best performance in Bihar since 1995 when the parties had shared 38 MLAs in an undivided Bihar that included Jharkhand. Buoyed by the latest results, the parties are now eying to expand to newer areas and conduct issue-based agitations for the common people. He must dampen the spirit of other left parties only for satisfying the egos of some leaders. He must adopt a pragmatic view.
None knows better than Yechury that there is vast difference between political strategy and electoral strategy. Electorally if the party can have alliance with Congress, which was pariah for it till some months ago, there is no harm in having electoral adjustment with TMC for the bigger cause. Bose’s defining the character of TMC at this stage is irrelevant and would open up a large number of political issues. If working with the Congress was essential to defeat the BJP-RSS combine, the same line applies in the next election too. The Left shouldn’t be obsessed with the ruling TMC. It should work towards increasing the anti-BJP thrust of the campaigns and shape it accordingly. One thing is crystal clear that the BJP is the bigger political enemy of secular parties Of course, the Left will have to oppose the TMC government but there can be no bracketing of the TMC and the BJP together.