CPM West Bengal secretary Md Salim is confident of a Left resurgence in the state and says chemistry with the Congress is working well on the ground because the tie-up has been forged at the grassroots. In an interview with this newspaper, the former Lok Sabha MP and Murshidabad candidate says the Congress high command needs to assess the changing reality of Bengal. Excerpts:
How confident are you of your and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury’s win from Berhampore, a constituency next to yours?
The victory is already decided. Malda and Murshidabad will throw a surprise. In fact, the Left-Congress combine will sweep south Bengal. The BJP doesn’t have any connect with the masses and the Trinamool is facing huge anti-incumbency. That’s why Mamata Banerjee is getting jittery and changing her stance every day—one day with INDIA bloc, and the next day with the BJP.
If the Left-Congress vote increases, who will benefit — BJP or TMC?
I think the vote share will certainly increase for both parties and the people of Bengal will be the beneficiary. The BJP and TMC both will suffer heavy losses. The TMC would lose if the Left or Congress votes that had gone to it return to two INDIA bloc allies. Similar is the case with BJP. The INDIA bloc is going to gain in Bengal.
Do you think the vote transfer between the Left and Congress is seamless at the ground level? In the 2019 Lok Sabha and 2021 assembly elections, it didn’t happen if one goes by the results. What did you do differently this time?
It is absolutely seamless because the tie-up was not made top-down. It was rather bottom-up. And the chemistry is perceptible. The alliance wasn’t made by spokespersons, but by the ‘talapatras’ (those who work at the ground level). That’s why the media didn’t get a whiff of it. The alliance is spontaneous — the resistance is strong against the money power of BJP and the muscle power of TMC. If you hear closely in Murshidabad, the Left-Congress alliance is not referred to as an alliance but as ‘Jot’ party. The nomenclature was given by the mango people.
What’s the CPM was vocal on Sandeshkhali. Now with the sting operations, do you think it was a BJP plot? And then, where does the CPM stand now?
Sandeshkhali is no stand-alone incident. You can find such examples in Birbhum, Bankura and elsewhere in the state. The TMC’s shady operations needed ‘liberated zones’ ruled by local satraps. What the TMC did was to destroy institutions, democratic rights and values. Women were attacked, molested and in some cases, raped.
When our former MLA Nirapada Sardar raised the issue in the Assembly, the then deputy speaker Sonali Guha, who is now with BJP, switched off the mic. That’s how the TMC function. What the BJP has tried is giving it a religious and communal colour by linking Bangladeshis and Rohingyas to the incident. They tried to gain political mileage by catering to their vote banks and derailing the people’s protest.
Mamata Banerjee has said she is with INDIA bloc, but she counts out the Left and Bengal Congress. If INDIA bloc is positioned to form the government, what will be your stand?
She is making herself a laughing stock. When the decision to form the INDIA bloc was taken, I told a press conference that everyone can board a train from Howrah to Delhi. However, Mamata got down from the train to save her nephew from CBI-ED prove. At that time, Modi came out with a slogan ‘ab ki baar 400 paar’. Mamata miscalculated the situation and thought that it is better to jeopardise the INDIA bloc.
Nitish Kumar was once called ‘bin pendi ka lota’ (undependable). Similar is the case with Mamata — whichever way the wind blows, she will take that course. Now with the BJP doesn’t seem to get a majority comfortably, she is making a U-turn. She has been an opportunist.
She now wants to create a division within Congress. The TMC was born out of that. It is up to AICC leaders to decide whether they would like to hand over the Congress in Bengal to Mamata and allow her to swallow it. The mood in Bengal is that anti-incumbency against the ruling party will help BJP. Naturally, AICC leaders, especially Mr Kharge, will need to assess the changing reality, unfolding stories and emerging scenarios in Bengal politics afresh. There is a learning curve on Bengal’s latest political developments that the Congress high command needs to go through, and with Mr Kharge’s comment on the Left-Cong alliance and how TMC is trying to sabotage it, is a welcome change.