The CPI(M)-led Left Front, which ruled West Bengal for over three decades, is campaigning aggressively to regain a foothold in the country’s fourth-most populous state. Even as the electoral spotlight remains fixed on the two dominant players—the BJP and the Trinamool Congress (TMC)—the CPI(M) is working steadily with a new generation of leaders to reclaim lost ground. The party, which governed the state from 1977 to 2011 under stalwarts such as Jyoti Basu and Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, is gearing up to take on both the TMC and the BJP in the upcoming Assembly elections.
This year it is different from the 2021 Assembly elections in West Bengal for the party in terms of women candidates. The party has fielded a total of 27 women candidates compared to 20 women candidates in the 2021 Assembly elections. Among the prominent names on the list is Sabina Yasmin, mother of a nine-year-old girl who died in a bomb blast during the Kaliganj Assembly bypoll last year. Yasmin will contest from Kaliganj.
Other notable young women candidates include CPI(M) Central Committee member and one of the party’s most recognisable faces, Meenakshi Mukherjee; Students’ Federation of India’s Dipsita Dhar; and Afreen Shilpi, a PhD scholar at Jadavpur University and the youngest candidate in the Assembly election
The New Indian Express spoke to these young women candidates about their view of the contest and the key issues driving their campaign.
Meenakshi Mukherjee, who is known for her work at grassroots levels, was one of the fierce protesters during the RG Kar rape and murder incident. She is contesting from Uttarpara, Hooghly. In the 2021 Assembly election, Mukherjee was fielded from Nandigram, the invincible castle of Didi. She contested against Mamata Banerjee (TMC) and Suvendhu Adhikari (BJP). However, Adhikari won the seat from Nandigram with a total 1,10,764 votes.
When asked about the RG Kar victim's mother contesting from Panihati Municipality with a BJP ticket, Meenakshi said, "We had protested and will continue to fight for the justice of Abhaya. When Bengal lost its daughter, no one knew her caste or the political party that her mother belonged to. We came together as a family trying to get justice for the state's daughter."
While, Dipshita Dhar, All India Joint Secretary of SFI, has been fielded from Dum Dum North. Having completed her bachelor’s from Kolkata’s Ashutosh College and PhD from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Dipshita has always been in the limelight for voicing opinions against social and gender issues.
In her constituency, Dipshita will be facing TMC’s two-time sitting MLA Chandrima Bhattarcharya, who also the Minister of Health and Family Welfare in the TMC-led government. When asked about how her approach differs from that of last year, Dipshita tells; “There is no difference in approach. We are fighting a political fight, and it doesn’t matter who our opponent is; what is their caste or gender. If Bhattarcharya had renovated even one state-run hospital in Dum Dum, I would have given it a thought about her being my strong contender. But that is not the case here.”
On what the party promises if it comes to power, Dipsita said, “We will revamp all government-run institutions and reopen schools that are currently shut in rural districts of West Bengal. We have also promised in our manifesto that at least one person from each family will be provided with a permanent job.”
Commenting about TMC’s introduction of Banglar Yuva Sathi Scheme and a hike in Lakshmir Bhandar, Dishita said, “Giving allowance to someone is fine, but it shouldn’t arise from unemployment. Providing the youth with an allowance until they land a job is what the government will be looking forward to.”
Regarding competing on a national scale with the BJP-ruled central government, Dipshita said, “The kind of communal politics that the BJP and TMC have integrated in Bengal is unprecedented. We do not see both these parties as opponents; we visualise both parties as allies, who are helping each other to create a binary where the working class doesn’t get prioritised.”
During the 2024 Lok Sabha campaign in Srirampur, where Dipshita contested against Kalyan Banerjee, he was widely criticised for his derogatory comments on Dipshita. Recalling the incident, Dipshita says, “As a woman, it is troublesome to make a space for yourself in the political party. You are constantly under deep scrutiny. The road is full of misogyny and sexism. There is body shaming and character assassination. But what keeps us going is faith and belief in ourselves and our politics.”
Afreen Shilpi is the youngest leader fielded by the CPI(M) for the upcoming Assembly election. The 29-year-old scholar from Jadavpur University, is contesting from South Kolkata’s Ballygunge assembly constituency, a place where she was born and brought up. She will be contesting against senior TMC leader Sovandeb Chattopadhyay, who won South Kolkata’s Bhabhanipur seat in 2021 with 73,505 votes. He currently serves as the minister-in-charge of the Department Parliamentary Affairs in the government of West Bengal.
Hitting the grounds almost every day and going from lane to lane, Afreen spreads her slogan and message in Bengali, Hindi and English, sometimes in Urdu too. “As I have grown up in Ballygunge, I know the people here and which language they are comfortable with, so to understand their needs and requirements, I have to be like them. Language is the biggest weapon with which you can do that,” Afreen tells TNIE.
Upon being asked about the SIR results that have eliminated 91 lakh citizens from their voting rights, Afeen says, “There are many voters, especially Muslims, whose names were present in the 2002 voting list, but then too, even after showing all the required documents, their names were deleted from this year’s electoral list." she said.
"In the name of logical discrepancy, lakhs of voters have been deleted only in West Bengal. In our Ballygunge constituency, 23,000 names are under adjudication. Among them, 18,000 deleted voters are Muslims. Even the Supreme Court is not ready to listen to our plea. CJI Surya Kant has already made a statement that the deleted voters will not be allowed to vote in the assembly election. We are continuing to vote for their rights,” Afreen Shilpi added.
Whether these young leaders can help the CPI(M) regain its long-lost power in the state will be decided on May 4, after West Bengal votes on April 23 and 29.