For the first time in the history of West Bengal, the Left and the Indian National Congress shall have no member in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly. The indication was there in the 17th Lok Sabha elections in 2019. The Left Front failed to establish the lead in a single one of the 294 assembly segments. The INC which had led in nine assembly segments in 2019 drew blank this time. It is time for the Left, especially communists to script a strong self-critique. The Left Front and Congress got 5.66 per cent and 2.94 per cent of votes respectively in 2021 against 7 per cent and 5.69 per cent correspondingly in 2019.

Former CPI(M) minister during the LF regime, Kanti Ganguly who was in third position in the Raidighi constituency of South 24 Parganas district lamented, ‘People thought that TMC would alone prevent the communal fascism in West Bengal. We committed the error. There is a need for factual analysis’. But the party’s Rajya Sabha member and ex-Mayor of Kolkata Bikash Bhattacharya wrote in facebook that the results of this election ‘pleased the RSS and all anti-CPI(M) forces’. This does not explain why voting share of CPI(M) fell from 6.86 per cent to 4.72 per cent between 2019 and 2021.

The CPI(M) polit bureau in its communiqué has unequivocally stated, “The BJP suffered a severe setback despite its money power and manipulations in West Bengal. The people of Bengal have very clearly rejected the ideology of communal polarization. The performance of the CPI(M) and the Left has been very disappointing. People’s urge to defeat the BJP led to a sharp polarisation between BJP and TMC, squeezing out the Sanjukta Morcha. A serious self-critical review of these results will be undertaken by the party to draw lessons” The PB statement makes adequate sense.

Between 2019 and 2021, BJP’s vote share dropped by 3 per cent at 38.13 per cent in contrast to 4 per cent gain by TMC up to 47.94 per cent. For the BJP it was a worst nightmare. The Sangh has incurred expenses like water. Liberal hiring of chartered planes and ‘copters, Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed 18 electoral rallies while the Union home minister spoke at 43 rallies – some having been virtual. UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath addressed about a dozen of rallies, let alone other central ministers and MPs of BJP. All this ended in a damp squib. Sangh Parivar’s project of transplanting Hindutva into people’s mindset fell through.

Of the 213 seats, bagged by TMC, out of 292 assembly constituencies where elections took place, 117 were rural seats in contrast to 38 won by the BJP. The victorious party won53 urban and 43 rurban (rural-urban mix) constituencies against corresponding of 19 and 20 respectively by BJP. Sangh Parivar’s vicious campaign against ‘cut money’ raj, extortion, corruption (especially pertaining to Amphan super cyclone) etc were ignored by most of the six-crore-plus voters who exercised their franchise.

Muslims have largely exercised their franchise in favour of the TMC, befooling the All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen. The newly floated ISF have failed to curry favour with members of the community.

Veteran TMC leader Siddiqullah Chowdhury and re-elected MLA said, “At least 95 per cent of all Muslims in Bengal voted for Mamata Banerjee. My brothers and sisters from the community could have never voted for a communal force. They have clearly realised that Mamata didi is the only one who can fight communalism in West Bengal. AIMIM leader Asadullah Sheikh agreed that the Muslims, scared and threatened by the BJP, found no better option than the TMC as they could not have relied on new parties that joined the fray, especially under the threat of the Citizenship Amendment Act and National Register of Citizens. However, he hastened to note that the TMC government did nothing to improve the living standards of the community in a decade.

But the Left parties, especially the CPI(M) and CPI, have to not only thoroughly rethink their self-destructive disastrous electoral tactics in West Bengal and come out with their self-critique openly instead of hiding in the protective shield of ‘democratic centralism’, but beef up their movements against the evil designs of BJP and RSS, which have embarked on armed terror, killing their main opponent, the TMC too. The mainstream media highlights violence by the TMC goons disproportionately. The Left needs to embark on a campaign against the incidents of sporadic violence when it is far from being widespread. The BJP is set to make misuse of its powerful armada of 75 MLAs (two sitting MPs who won likely to retain their LS seats). Of these seats, 19 were won due to cutting away of votes by the CPI(M), RSP, Forward Bloc and INC. Joypur seat of Bankura district might have gone to the INC if the FB did not field a candidate.

The TMC has succeeded in demolishing the saffron dream of forming a government with 200-plus seats in the state assembly. But the task ahead is tougher – namely exposing the nefarious strategies of RSS and the BJP. The Left can play its role in as much as TMC lacks the politico-ideological edge to frustrate the Fascist offensives. Both the Left and the TMC have a common goal- defeat of BJP in the next Lok Sabha poll.

The CPI(M) central leadership has shown objectivity in assessing the results in Bengal, but the state leadership thoroughly misread the political mood in Bengal on poll eve and due to Mamataphobia forgot the supreme task of a communist to defeat the Hindutva onslaught. The central leadership has to assert vigorously this time and compel the Bengal leadership to change its disastrous approach and help the party in playing its due role as the defender of the peoples interests. The coming years till Lok Sabha poll in 2024 are crucial for Indian polity. The Left, along with Trinamool have to play the due role in facilitating understanding of anti-BJP forces against the Sangh Parivar.

No nerve should be left unstrained to expose the most-autocratic Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his endless falsehoods. The US-based academic Vinay Lal aptly put it. Modi “runs the country like his personal fiefdom and brooks no dissent. His management of the coronavirus pandemic is now recognized all over the world—and even among a few in the BJP, though few dare to say as much in public—as catastrophic dereliction of duty. He has been disdainful of scientific expertise and there is increasing indeed overwhelming experience that warnings of the deadly second wave which has left the country reeling, the object of pity and concern everywhere in the world, were ignored by him and his ministers. India has recorded nearly 4000 deaths for several days running and, as this is being published, the virus is making deep inroads into towns and villages. Yet, earlier this year, Modi triumphantly announced that India had not only conquered the virus, but had quite evidently set an example for the rest of the world.” (IPA Service)