Kolkata, March 15 The CPI(M) is fighting an existential battle in the electoral scene in West Bengal, pinning its hopes on a slight upward trend in its vote share in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls compared to the 2021 state assembly polls.
STRENGTHS:
The party is exuding confidence over the "positive response" it received during the 20-day 'Bangla Bachao Yatra' (Save Bengal March) across the state, and is highlighting allegations of corruption against the ruling Trinamool Congress and religious divisions.
The CPI(M) boasts of a clean image and a no-frills approach of its leaders, who lead simple lifestyles.
Leftist organizations have led protests over some of the major issues in the state, such as the school jobs scam and the rape and murder of a doctor at R G Kar Medical College and Hospital.
WEAKNESSES:
The agitations and movements have not yielded electoral benefits for the CPI(M) in the 2021 assembly polls and the 2019 and 2024 Lok Sabha elections, with the Left Front failing to secure any seats.
The CPI(M)-led Left Front secured 39 per cent of the vote in 2011, with the CPI(M) alone accounting for 30 per cent, while a decade later, in the 2021 assembly elections, the Left Front's share fell to just 4.73 per cent.
A dwindling support base and ageing leadership seem to be major handicaps for the Left Front, which ruled the state for 34 years until 2011.
Despite having ruled West Bengal uninterruptedly from 1977 to 2011, the Left Front has been marginalized over the past decade.
OPPORTUNITIES:
In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the CPI(M) alone secured 5.73 per cent votes, up from 4.73 per cent in the 2021 assembly polls, raising hopes for a better showing.
The CPI(M) has been making efforts to bring in new leaders, promoting figures like Minakshi Mukherjee to the forefront.
The Left parties' secular stance is likely to appeal to a section of Bengalis who have traditionally avoided overt religious polarization.
The Left has been targeting the high-pitched religious narratives of the BJP and the Trinamool Congress, offering a balanced approach towards people based on jobs, education, and good law and order, rather than religion.
The CPI(M) has been targeting the Trinamool Congress dispensation in West Bengal over law and order issues, including crimes against women, violence, and white-collar crimes.
CHALLENGES:
The Left Front had fought the 2016 and 2021 assembly elections and the 2024 Lok Sabha polls in the state in a seat-sharing arrangement with the Congress, but this time the ruling party has decided to contest independently.
Maintaining that the Left Front is preparing to fight the 294-seat West Bengal assembly elections on its own, CPI(M) state secretary Mohammed Salim has claimed that this will not prove to be a setback for the Left Front.
Salim's recent meeting with suspended TMC MLA Humayun Kabir at a hotel in New Town here, however, raised eyebrows as the latter has been involved in controversy over the construction of a mosque in Murshidabad district.
Political critics have claimed that this is a sign of desperation among the CPI(M) leadership, who had also entered into a seat-sharing arrangement with the then newly-formed party ISF, led by Nawsad Siddique, a descendant of Muhammad Abu Bakr Siddique, the first Pir of Furfura Sharif, in the 2021 assembly polls.
The defection by Pratikur Rahman, a young state committee member who had contested the 2024 Lok Sabha polls against TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee from Diamond Harbour, had grabbed headlines.