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TMC’s stand against Left, Congress raises questions in poll-bound Bengal
The BJP alleged that with such a crackdown the ruling party is making space for the Left and Congress and helping them paw into the anti-establishment votes that helped the saffron camp rise in Bengal.
The strike was called in protest against baton charge and use of tear gas shells by the police during an agitation in Kolkata and Howrah by youth and student fronts of the Left parties on Thursday. To stop the young men from marching to Nabanna, the state secretariat, and voice their demand for jobs, the police even erected barricades similar to the ones witnessed during the farmers’ agitation in Delhi.
The BJP alleged that with such a crackdown the ruling party is making space for the Left and Congress and helping them paw into the anti-establishment votes that helped the saffron camp rise in Bengal. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the Congress and the Left contested as opponents while the BJP won 18 of the 42 seats, thanks to a huge swing in Left votes towards the saffron camp.
Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh on Friday did not support the general strike, calling it anti-development, and alleged that the TMC is helping the Left and Congress regain ground.
“This is part of Mamata Banerjee’s tactics to dig into the BJP’s vote share,” said Ghosh.
The allegation came against the backdrop of the soft stance TMC chief Mamata Banerjee and her leaders took towards the CPI (M) in January while her follower-turned-adversary Suvendu Adhikari openly appealed to Left and Congress workers to help the BJP oust the ruling party. “I appeal to our friends in Left Front and Congress to attend rallies of their parties but vote for us in the interest of Bengal,” Adhikari said at a rally in West Burdwan district in January.
The Left Front’s decision to announce a general strike at such short notice surprised many since this was not the first time the police used force to disperse Left agitators. The Indian Secular Front, a new platform launched by popular cleric Pirzada Abbasuddin Siddiqui from Hooghly district, also supported the strike. Siddiqui has shown keenness to have a seat-sharing arrangement with the Left and Congress.
Although Bengal’s Marxists took part in the all-India strikes called by trade unions and farmers’ fronts in the recent past, they did not organise any Bengal bandh in at least five years, Left leaders said. In 2016, the Left trade unions had called a general strike in Bengal but it saw poor response.
In sharp contrast, roads, highways and railway tracks were blocked in parts of every district on Friday. Shops and established were closed in parts of north Bengal too where the BJP made maximum inroads in 2019. “Railway services were affected in several sections in the morning,” said K D Das, chief public relations officer of the Eastern Railways.
“In a way, the strike helped the Left parties evaluate their presence on the ground,” said Manoj Bhattacharya, state secretary of the Revolutionary Socialist Party, a partner in the Left Front.
CPI (M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, who was in Kolkata on Friday, claimed that success of the strike proved that a “Left, democratic, secular alternative” is rising and the contest is a triangular one.
“How can Mamata Banerjee and Narendra Modi, who rose to power by leading processions, crack down on people’s movements today. They follow the same path and people are rising for their rights. The coming election is not one to seek change in regime but to protect our democratic rights,” Yechury said.
“The TMC and BJP have created this narrative on a bi-polar election for their own advantage. It gives the BJP the opportunity to exploit people’s anger against the TMC while the ruling party gets the support of voters with secular views. In 2019, there was no alternative before voters. Now, there is one,” Yechury added.
TMC leaders said Yechury and Ghosh were both wrong and the contest remains a bi-polar one. “Mamata Banerjee does not need parties with microscopic presence to win elections,” said a cabinet minister who did not want to be quoted.
