Worryingly for the Front, divisions within the state leadership of the CPI(M), the dominant constituent , are evident at two levels — over the left’s poor electoral showing in recent elections to 12 civic bodies and its agitational programmes in the future. The decision of the Burdwan and Nadia district party units to pull out midway during the day of polling, alleging ‘unprecedented terror tactics’ on part of the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC), has exposed the CPI(M)’s confusion. State party secretary Biman Bose has supported the ‘poll boycott’ decision by the two units. But former chief minister and Politburo member Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has criticised the ‘escapist’ move. His argument — elections may be won or lost, but the party should have fought to the end, instead of running away. Both have aired their views in public.

To compound the Left’s misery, while TV channels showed some incidents of violence during poll day, no special footage confirming the TMC-unleashed ‘terror’ was shown from Burdwan or Nadia districts. The other factor favouring Bhattacharjee’s argument is that while the Left won only one out of 12 civic bodies in Mekhliganj, its candidates put up a reasonable fight in four or five other districts. This seems to indicate that the TMC-sponsored terror campaign may not have been as dominant an issue as the LF leaders would like to project. Given this situation, CPI(M) leaders in Burdwan and Nadia districts have not sent a positive message either to their cadres or their supporters by their decision to walk out of the elections. Their move has further demoralised the already listless Left cadre base, according to analysts.

A CPI(M) state committee leader indirectly confirmed this in a conversation with one of his colleagues recently, ‘Our party has not done much of note during the past two years — the outcome of the civic elections is not surprising.’ The first part of his observation is the key to understanding the present apparently aimless drift within the main opposition party in West Bengal.

The widespread media coverage of the multi-million rupees Saradha ponzi scheme scam, perhaps the biggest in India, was a godsend to the opposition parties in the state. Lakhs of innocent people had been robbed of their savings amounting to over Rs 20,000 crore, by some estimates. At least 30 people including some fund agents had committed suicide. There was photographic and other evidence of the close ties between some TMC leaders and the Saradha company bosses.

Yet but for a couple of token demonstrations and meetings, Left parties did not launch any major agitation in the rural or urban areas, to the utter surprise of all, at a time when the ruling TMC was on the ropes, its supremo Mamata Banerjee clearly on the defensive; the reason being confusion among Left leaders over their own response. While the younger cadres and their leaders such as Gautam Deb and Suryakanta Mishra were in favour of a prolonged agitation, more conservative leaders calling for caution prevailed. Their logic — during the Left Front times, too, Saradha had been flourishing, with the help of Left leaders. Not only the TMC would embarrass the Left on this score, even people supporting and participating in any left-backed agitation would be victimised by the ruling TMC. This in turn would hurt and alienate especially victims of the Saradha scam. Result: the Left underused its most lethal political weapon that could have hurt the TMC rallied public opinion against it in the districts!

As expected, for some time now, there has been increasingly a call within Left circles for a comprehensive change at all levels of party organisation, beginning with those at the top. Among those targeted are Bhattacharjee and Bose. Former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee stirred up a hornet’s nest recently, supporting the call for a change at the top, in view of the repeated electoral setbacks faced by the Left since 2009 at all levels. This is of a piece with the demand for an inner Left ‘cleansing’ involving the dropping of ‘bad apples’ — those with connections with anti-socials, real estate promoters and the like. Except for a few low-level figures, not many have been disciplined.

Bhattacharjee himself is known to be unwilling to continue his work as a Politburo member for some time for health reasons. The problem is, those who have raised such demands — former minister Manab Mukherjee for example — are themselves not above criticism. Mukherjee has been noted for his arrogance and misdemeanours, which include the controversial attempted purchase of high-cost spectacles for his wife from the public exchequer.

Official reactions from the CPI(M) after the civic polls naturally stress the need for increasing mass contacts, the censure of idle, demoralised cadres and a toning up of the party machinery after the festive season so that the opposition can gradually go on the offensive. Accordingly, mass organisations like the DYF and the CITU have been staging demonstrations on issues like the price rice. These programmes are aimed against the TMC but also a part of the Left’s political campaign for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

However at the top level again, the CPI(M)’s call for an equidistant position from the Congress(I) and the BJP has so far elicited a lukewarm response that contrasts strongly with the enthusiasm for BJP’s Narendra Modi’s projection as the future Prime Minister in some parts of India. (IPA Service)