Farmers Movement Archive

Congress-Left combine fights for pan-Bengal relevance

KOLKATA: For Left and Congress, key players in Bengal politics a decade ago, the assembly polls are a battle for survival. Both parties are desperate to arrest the continuous decline in their vote share since 2011. This could be the reason why the Left-Congress wants to break the Modi-Mamata binary and emerge strong enough to play the key role in government formation. Congress is mainly eyeing the 22 Murshidabad seats, six seats in south Malda, the Matigara-Naxalbari seat near Siliguri and some in Uttar Dinajpur while the Left is banking on the Siliguri seat, the Durgapur-Asansol belt, some Nadia seats, and some city seats, like Jadavpur and Tollygunge. But the combine, along with Abbas Siddiqui’s party, can pose a threat to Trinamool’s monopoly in South and North 24 Parganas, Hooghly and East Midnapore. The Left are gaining supporters among college and university students taking part in demonstrations and rallies. Congress leader Adhir Chowdhury has been able to turn the tables on Trinamool after he won from the Behrampore Lok Sabha constituency in 2019. The win helped Congress win back some of the party organizers who joined Trinamool. Congress is set to give Trinamool a tough fight in Chowdhury’s turf. But this can produce the best results if the Left-Congress alliance works at the grassroots. It didn’t work in many seats in the 2016 assembly polls and the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, creating “misgivings” among the ranks. Left and Congress leaders are taking special care not to lose the battle in squabbles this time. Left-Congress seniors have called a mega rally at the Brigade Parade Grounds on February 28 to send out the message of unity. The Left-Congress has been consistently trying to change the narratives on religious and linguistic lines and put the debate back on issues concerning people’s lives — rising prices, unemployment, farmers’ protests at Singhu border and growing resentment among small and marginal farmers in Bengal over the denial of MSP prices. The Opposition didn’t get the opportunity to take up such issues during the 2018 panchayat polls because many couldn’t file nominations. Jote leaders also blamed Trinamool for not holding the civic polls in time. Jote leaders are also making use of the rising disgust over the ‘dal badlus’, which was not the trend in Bengal politics when Congress and communists were in office. A large section of voters tends to agree, but these voters do not believe that the jote will be coming to power. The Left’s dismal performance in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls has fuelled the perception.

The Times of India

2021-02-27

Kolkata