This reminds veterans who plunged into poll politics in 1967 of a classy street play by the late Utpal Dutt, arguably the pace-setter in theatre production who gave theatre-goers the feel of Brechtiana in the Stanislavskian frame: Dinbadaler Pala.

There indeed was a change of guard at the Writers' Building, the seat of West Bengal government, with the installation of the first United Front government headed by Ajoy Mukherjee, not Jyoti Basu, one of the founding Politburo members of the CPI(M).

However, in this election, the caption is deeply suggestive. The Left today has lost its aesthetic sheen and intellectual sharpness. Frankly speaking, the quality of slogans, graffiti and even street plays of the ruling Left Front has steeply fallen. “Where are poets like Subhas Mukhopadhyay, Ram Basu or Siddheswar Sen to write stanzas that still have high literary values?” lamented Dilip Bandyopadhyay who died on 13 April. Dr Bandyopadhyay, cultural front leader of CPI(ML) Liberation, was fond of quoting Mukherjee's campaign poem of 1952 for the undivided Communist Party of India : “Rastar morey lalbati jwele/ Shanukera dyay sondhye/ Jora baladke deyale lotke/ Thont chete bawle/ Vote dey “ (Vultures gather lighting red lamps at street crossings as if to perform the evening worship, ; pasting the symbol of bullocks on the wall/. They lick their lips and say cast your votes on it)”. The Congress poll symbol until 1969 was a pair of bullocks.

In contrast , a CITU graffiti at Bagha Jatin in Jadavpur assembly segment of Jadavpur constituency reads: Tumi na thakle rajyota atow asthir hotona; tumi na thakle shilpo asto bekari hoto na” ( Had you not been here, there would not have been chaos; had you not been here, industries would grow more and there would have been no unemployment.” This is directed at Mamata Banerjee. Mass fronts of CPI(M) prioritise targeting her personally, not the politics or ideology of AITC A unit of IPTA, the pro-CPI(M) outfit which is not related to the national IPTA, produced a street play, Dhangseswari (goddess of destruction). The deity here is Mamata who is blamed for failure of the Tata Motors's Nano assembly plant at Singur and petrochemical and petroleum industrial SEZ at Singur.

There are some - though very few — good nonsense rhymes too. Taking a dig at Sudip Bandyopadhyay, former AITC MP, who, after being defeated as an independent candidate in 2004, switched to the Congress to become an MLA. Now he is the Trinamul candidate from Calcutta North constituency. A graffiti by CPI(M) with a caption - ' honest candidate' reads : Rajneeti tar? Bolchhi moshai/ Dhanya chheler adhyabasay./Tatar deoa tangka gune/ Aajke Delhi, kalke Pune/Unishtibar bidhansabhay/Tatababur karkhana chay/ Manush tow nay/Magajta tar/Dhandabajir probol jowar.” (His politics? Listen, sir/ Bravo for his perseverance/ Taking money from the Tatas/ Rushing to Delhi today, tomorrow to Pune/Nineteen times did he/Campaign for the Tatas factory in the state legislature./Not just a man is he, or his brain/Turbulently opportunist).

The Left Front constituents' cultural front brought out a couple of street plays. Among the wellknown playwrights are Chandan Sen, whose Daibaddha (The Committed) was once a hit and Shib Sharma. But the scripts are poor in quality excepting one by Samudra Guha who refrained from Mamata-bashing and emphasised the threat of neo-liberalism. “Some playwrights of our allies pay lip service to the Leftist cause. But their plays are very often a hit”, a senior IPTA organizer admitted. There is no denying that street theatres have a great role today in the battle against globalization which thrives on crazy consumerism. Bhattacharjee, who coined the word apasanskriti (sham culture) when he was information and cultural affairs minister in the first LF government, seldom utters apasanskriti. The Left cultural activists need to be reminded of Judith Malina's words 'The theatre is in the streets!' and led the audience into the streets and half the people were naked.'

The Opposition - Congress and AITC - graffitis target West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, CPI(M) polit bureau member, but not as bluntly as some of the CPI(M) ones. Take a sample, “Tata elo Nano gyalo/ Bangla holo shuddha/ Aar kawta din dhoirjyo dhawro/ Ebar jabe Buddha” (Came the Tatas; went the Nano. Bengal became purified; have patience for some time; next to go is Buddha.).

A cassette of Ashim Giri, a school teacher - Nandigram & Megacity - is more appealing. Take the song, Megacity, written and tuned by Nitish Roy of CPI(ML) Liberation-Paschimbanga Ganasanskriti Parishad- Amader mega mega megacity habe gow ( we shall have our megacity). One of the lines is “Dhonider megacity/ Goriber habe chhuti/ Goribera kothay jabe go (Megacity is for the rich. Where will the poor people go?).

Electioneering in West Bengal is a very different ball game. The CPI(M) is well-ahead of others. The “Jay ho” slogan, lifted straight from the Oscar-winner Slumdog Millionnaire , is put up in at least 50 points by the CPI(M) nominee Mohd Salim, a sitting MP.

The sobriety of cultural creativity is absent in poll campaigns. But there were traces of creativity even in the 1970s. Something is missing, especially in the Left-style of cultural campaign. Those who are nostalgic about street plays and sharply-worded slogans of the 1950s and 1960s cannot but feel concerned about the drift to mediocrity. Rather a graffiti appeals the conscientious Leftist - “sonar dhan buke dhore/ jomi moder ma/ tifan asuk, police asuk. Jomi debo na” (We shall hold on to the golden corn. The land is our mother, let the cyclone come, let the police raid, we shall not part with our land. ” Poetically poor, but the expression is genuine.#