Elections 2019: Left Front Thrust on Communalism, Corruption Gains Traction in Bengal

Kolkata: As the election campaign trail heats up in West Bengal, public meetings and street marches by Left Front candidates are focusing their campaign on two Cs -- corruption and communalism -- that they say are epitomised by the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

In fact, some candidates of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) – CPI(M) -- are upbeat about the response that their public meetings are getting, especially when it comes to ‘new’ voters.

“Wherever we are going, there is a surge of new voters enlisting with us,” said  CPI(M) candidate and noted lawyer, Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, who is contesting for the Jadavpur Lok Sabha seat.  In fact, he claimed ‘new’ voters seemed drawn to the Left Front’s take on scam-laden governance in the state by TMC and at the Centre by the BJP.
Bhattacharya, who has been in the forefront of the anti-corruption movement, has been leading a legal battle against alleged corruption by TMC bigwigs in the Sarada chit fund and the Narada scams. He is in a key fight with TMC’s Mimi Chakraborty, a film actor and a political novice, and BJP’s Anupam Hazra, TMC’s MP from Bolpur, who recently defected to the saffron party.

“Our campaign is basically focused on optimism, not on negative vibes. People know about the corrupt and communal face of BJP and the corrupt rule of autocratic TMC. What we are focusing on is the need to strengthen people’s campaigns and issues in Parliament,” he said.

Citing an example of ‘bonhomie’ between TMC and BJP, Bhattacharya said: “People have already seen BJP-TMC bonhomie when there was an all-out attack against the nationwide strike in January this year, called by workers and peasants of the country,” said Rahul Ghosh, CPI(M) state committee member and convenor of the party’s election committee  for the Jadavpur seat.

At a public meeting in Sonarpur (North), Bhattacharya, who is also president of the All India Lawyers Union, appealed to thousands of Left Front supporters who had gathered, to focus the campaign on the ‘greater objective’ of saving the country’s Constitution. “The current Lok Sabha election is not a fight between individuals, but for the greater objective of saving the Constitution of the country from the clutches of a Prime Minister who is accused in the Rafale aricraft scam and is evading a probe, and from a proven corruption icon  -- West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee,” he said.

Accusing the TMC of unleashing “terror” during the panchayat polls, CPI(M) South 24 Parganas district secretary Shamik Lahiri, claimed that people of the district were miffed with the ruling  TMC. “Do you know why terror was orchestrated during the last panchayet election? In South 24 Parganas, there are about 5,40,000 acres of arable land. In about 280,000 acres, paddy is grown.

The middlemen (dalal or fore in Bengali) are all TMC bigwigs at the panchayat-level and are forcing paddy growers to part with their produce at about Rs 1,000 to 1,100 per quintal. While the minimum support price is about Rs 1,740 under TMC’s governance, the rate at which the middlemen sell the produce to the government.  In every acre, about 45 quintals of paddy is grown, and easily one can pocket an amount of about Rs 200 -250 crore,” he alleged.

Left Front supporters said in one of the Assembly segments in Jadavpur – Bhangore -- in many areas none except the TMC can campaign, claiming that a fatwa (diktat) to this effect had already been passed by the land mafia.

‘Undeclared Emergency’ 

In the neighbouring Lok Sabha seat of Diamond Harbour, where  CPI(M) has put up noted physician Fuad Halim, son of former Assembly Speaker late Hashim Abdul Halim. Known as the ‘People’s Doctor’, Halim is up against ‘Crown Prince’ Abhishek Banerjee, the Chief Minister’s nephew.

The CPI(M) has called for immediate deployment of paramilitary forces in the  entire Diamond Harbour segment. Shamik Lahiri, CPI(M)  District Secretary and Convenor  of Left Front for the Diamond Harbour Loksabha Seat. “There is an undeclared Emergency in Diamond Harbour and the Left Front has already sent its complaints to the Election Commission,” said Shamik Lahiri, convenor of the Left Front’s campaign in the segment, adding that in all the Assembly segments, “TMC hooligans are not allowing any candidates to campaign, and especially Left activists are being targeted .”

He also alleged that “hundreds of armed TMC hooligans are patrolling villages”, adding that “only paramilitary mobilisation can salvage the situation.”