Can the Left Front Turn Things Around With the Young Brigade?
With the fall of the Left Government in Bengal in the 2011 Assembly Elections, the Left Front had somewhat diminished in terms of followers as well as political stand in the whole political scenery of Bengal. This trend continued with the major elections afterwards, like the 2014 and 2019 Parliamentary Elections, 2016 Assembly Elections and later, the 2018 Panchayat Elections.
The party struggled to manage even a single seat. This decline came in as a total surprise as the same party had ruled the state for 34 straight years without fail in any election during the given period. The alliance with the Indian National Congress that was made in some recent elections didn’t turn out to be of much use against the strong hold of Trinamool Congress and Mamata Bannerjee. Wishing to get back to the hot seat again, this year the alliance expanded when Indian Secular Front joined hands with the communists to form the ‘Sanyukt Morcha’ and contest the 2021 Assembly Elections.
While BJP and TMC are pulling up popular names from the Bengali film industry, the LF has revamped its candidate's list with the inclusion of young faces in its brigade. Some of the notable names are:
1. Aishe Ghosh, the 25-year-old President of JNUSU who came into the limelight during the massive student agitation against the sudden fee hike in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), is fielded by the CPI(M) from Jamuria assembly seat.
2. Minakshi Mukherjee, 36, DYFI State President, took on the high voltage seat of Nandigram against Mamata Bannerjee and BJP hotshot Subhendu Adhikary on behalf of CPI(M) in the second phase of the elections on April 1.
Source: eastmojo.com
3. Dipshita Dhar, the 26-year-old All India Joint Secretary of SFI, is in the field on behalf of CPI(M) for competing in the Bally assembly seat.
4. Shatarup Ghosh, 34, the ex-unit secretary of SFI at Ashutosh College, present member of DYFI, is the candidate from CPI(M) at the Kasba assembly seat.
The list of candidates shows a lot of names who are under the age of 40, who were the faces of student protests and agitations and are popular among the Bong citizens. It clearly shows the intent to win over the new voters and the youth who struggled to find an idol from the current popular leaders. Even though their experience in mainstream politics falls short by a huge margin in front of the big names they’re competing against, hopes are still alive to bring on a change.
The three-way competition between TMC, BJP and the Sanyukt Morcha will surely be a tough one as all have a very strong and unique approach towards the people and their issues.
Bengal has always been one of the hotspots for student politics, dissent and progressive thought. Can the Politburo change the game with these young wild cards and keep communism alive in West Bengal? Will these names be enough for flipping the result in their favour? May 2 will announce the fate of communism in Bengal loud and clear.
Written by - Priyam Tahabilder
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