Srijan Bhattacharya, the CPI(M)’s 31-year-old candidate in Jadavpur Lok Sabha constituency, is all fired up. “This will be the new left,” he says. “We will talk in today’s lingo, but we will not dilute our politics. The content remains the same, but the form is changing for good.”
Bollywood punchlines have been helping Bhattacharya connect with crowds at poll rallies. At a rally organised by the CPI(M)’s youth wing at Kolkata’s Brigade Parade Ground, he borrowed a line from Shah Rukh Khan’s Jawan. “Baap ko hath lagaane se pehle bete se bat kar (Talk to the son before touching the father),” he said, eliciting a thunderous response from the audience.
Bhattacharya is one of the eight candidates who are aged below 40 that the CPI(M) has fielded in West Bengal. Of the 30 candidates that the Left Front has fielded as INDIA bloc candidates in the state, 22 are from the CPI(M). Only four of them are above 60.
This appears to be a decisive shift from the party’s long tradition of favouring old hands in electoral politics. Perhaps, what held a mirror up to the party were the results of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and the 2021 assembly polls. On both occasions, the party had drawn a blank.
The CPI(M) had fielded a few young candidates in 2021, but none of them made a big impact. But, three years since, the young leaders have the ability and experience to make voters take notice of the left’s poll agenda.
“The left is looking rejuvenated this time, especially because of the young blood injected by the CPI(M),” said Sibaji Pratim Basu, professor of political science at Vidyasagar University, Midnapore. “[The young leaders] are full of new ideas, and they will make a difference in this election.”
The CPI(M)’s young candidates are tech-savvy as well as avid users of social media. They talk about climate change and artificial intelligence, support large-scale industrialisation, and readily admit that the CPI(M) made mistakes during its 34-year rule in the state.
Bhattacharya says that the left, if it comes to power in West Bengal, will ensure that the days of militant trade unionism do not return. “We will mould our ways of functioning according to the changed realities of the 21st century,” he said. “But we will not compromise on the core of our politics.”
His party colleague and Serampore candidate Dipsita Dhar, 30, said the CPI(M) has owned up its mistakes. “If we say that our time was a golden era, it would be an utter lie,” she told THE WEEK. “But see what the Trinamool Congress has done in 13 years. Do you think we are as bad as them?”
Dipsita Dhar | Salil Bera
While campaigning, Dhar met two women who said all parties were the same. She had a quick response: “Then don’t vote for them. Try us for five years, and if we fail, throw us out as well.”
The young leaders identify both the BJP and the RSS as their opposition alongside the TMC—something that sets them apart from party seniors. “What scares me the most is how the RSS has penetrated rural Bengal,” said Dhar, a Jawaharlal Nehru University alumnus. “[We need to fight] the polarisation that has happened, especially in scheduled tribe and scheduled caste areas.”
Basu said the left’s changed strategy could bring back its traditional voter base. “The left for long had concentrated on opposing the Trinamool. As a result, their grassroots workers preferred the BJP, which was in a better position to beat the Trinamool,” he said. “But now, the left has realised that they need to first regain the second position in Bengal. That is why they have started criticising the BJP. It will help them get back some traditional voters.”
But whether the CPI(M) can win any seat remains uncertain. The party’s most winnable candidate appears to be veteran leader Mohammed Salim. “The left can perform well where the minority [community] is in the majority,” said Biswanath Chakraborty, professor of political science at Rabindra Bharati University in Kolkata.
A former MP, Salim is contesting from Murshidabad, once a CPI(M) bastion where the Congress also has strong presence. More than 60 per cent of the population of Murshidabad, which voted on May 7, are Muslims. In 2019, the Trinamool snatched the seat from the CPI(M) by gaining more than 19.5 per cent of votes.
Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, who hails from Murshidabad and holds sway in the constituency, has campaigned aggressively for Salim. Up against Salim is incumbent MP Abu Taher Khan and Gouri Shankar Ghosh of the BJP. “Make Salim da victorious with all your might,” Chowdhury said during a recent rally. “He is a good person. If he wins, he will become your voice in Parliament. It is important to make him win.”
In several seats, said Chakraborty, the left is poised to perform better than it did in 2019. “In Jadavpur, Dum Dum, Serampore, Barasat, Mathurapur, Krishnanagar and Bardhaman Purba, the left will put up a good show,” he said. In 2019, Trinamool had won all seven seats and the BJP had come second.
The BJP had made direct gains from the CPI(M)’s loss of votes in 2019. In Jadavpur, for instance, the CPI(M) lost 15.05 per cent votes while the BJP gained 15.14 per cent. In Dum Dum, the CPI(M) lost 15.08 per cent votes and the BJP increased its share by 15.61 per cent.
Sujan Chakraborty, the CPI(M) candidate in Dum Dum, is confident that the left will spring a surprise if the polls remain peaceful. “The last two elections in West Bengal were filled with violence,” he said. “CPI(M) voters were forcefully prevented from casting their vote…. If a fair election happens this time, there will be many surprises.”