KOLKATA: Dialectical and historical materialism, Marxism and Leninism are things of the past not only for the CPM but also its left front allies. The party, after being in power for 34 years in West Bengal, was more a social democratic party, with not just its leaders, but even party cadre living in luxury. As a result, the party apparatchik sidelined committed mid-level leaders and workers and relied on sycophants, believing their reports from various district committees. The result was a total loss of a connection with the masses.
In 1972, the left front won only 14 Assembly seats as polls were rigged. In 1977 when it swept to power, CPM alone obtained a simple majority but the front, formed through movements, with a common minimum programme, was intact.
In its last two terms, before the front was washed out by the Mamata ‘tsunami’, the CPM’s arrogance led to a chill in relations with its partners. In 2011, the arrogance of CPM cadre and the front government’s missteps in forcible acquisition of land in Singur and Nandigram were key reasons for its defeat. After 2011, the CPM withdrew into a shell and the state leadership failed to expel those with tarnished images. While many of the Left’s cadre, opportunists without Marxist training, joined the Trinamool Congress, the majority simply refrained from political activities. Further, the CPM’s state committee was not too keen to oppose West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee, though several younger leaders wanted to agitate on the multi-crore Saradha chit fund scam and teacher eligibility scam. For four years, the Left’s the “paper tiger” leaders held media conferences instead of taking to the streets. The people could not repose their trust in CPM dreading a return to its reign of misdeeds.
In 2012, Congress leader Abdul Mannan submitted a document to AICC chief Sonia Gandhi suggesting an alliance with the Left. Within a year former CPM state minister Goutam Deb declared an inclination to align with the Congress though the party congress in 2014 had resolved to maintain distance from the “communal BJP and capitalist Congress”.
Finally, in December, at the end of the CPM’s plenum, general secretary Sitaram Yechury had to bow to the state committee’s wish to take a decision after analysing ground realities.
Still, the Left-Congress alliance was fructified only after Assembly polls were announced. By then Mamata had announced her list of nominees. The alliance was neither formed through a movement nor was there a common minimum programme, let alone a CM candidate projected. It was more of a seat adjustment. CPM Lok Sabha MP Mohammad Salim told Express on Thursday: “We have to analyse what went wrong politically and organisationally. Our votes were certainly transferred to Congress nominees. But we doubt if Congress votes were transferred to Left candidates.” Salim had opposed the alliance from the start though he campaigned for Congress nominees.
Both Left and Congress leaders admitted that in many places the alliance did not work at a grass-root level. Congress families that had suffered during the CPM rule could never digest having to vote for the Marxists. Similarly hard-core Left voters differed with the leadership and did not tow the party line.
The 17 per cent of votes the BJP obtained in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, that fell to 10.7 per cent this time was a factor. A majority of voters who had voted for the BJP were opposed to both CPM and Congress and this time sided with the TMC.
The Left polled 25.2 per cent of the votes but won only 32 seats. The rout of the Left in West Bengal, once considered a “Red Fort” was a foregone conclusion as it relied on spontaneity instead of proper analysis of the objective condition.
‘Most ill-judged tactical tie-up’
The CPI(ML) on Thursday attacked the CPI(M) following its drubbing in the West Bengal elections, saying that the latter had emerged as the “biggest loser” because of its “most ill-judged” tactical tie-up with the Congress.