The Communist Party of India (Marxist)’s rout in West Bengal despite an informal alliance with the Congress has divided the party’s leadership on a key question: given this failure, should the CPI(M) avoid future alliances or should it consolidate ties further, keeping in mind long-term benefits that may accrue from it?
The Left won only 33 of the 294 seats up for grabs. The Trinamool Congress captured the state, winning 211 seats.
A section of the politbureau feel that the party’s alliance with the Congress was a wrong decision “amounting to a deviation” from the tactical line laid down by the CPI(M)’s highest decision-making body, the triennial party congress. But its general secretary Sitaram Yechury appeared to think otherwise as he addressed the media on Thursday.
“It was people’s unity that fought bravely the atmosphere of terror and intimidation,” said Yechury in response to a question on whether daggers were out now that the Left’s alliance with the Congress had flopped. “Because of this unity, our party cadres could come out in large numbers.”
He added: “It happens in a political war, when there are several fronts. One front, we won [in Kerala], the other we could not.” The leader said that the state committee of the party would examine the reasons for the poor performance of the Left Front and the electoral tactics adopted in West Bengal.
“Based on the state committee report, the central committee of the party would give its own analysis,” he said.
Siginificantly, the politbureau’s statement on the election outcome in five states did not name the Congress in the section that deals with West Bengal.
“It is easy to talk about all that now,” a senior politbureau member told Scroll.in on the condition of anonymity. “Had there not been an alliance, the party would not have withstood the Trinamool Congress’ terror. Besides, this alliance did play a role in party arresting the fall in our vote share roughly to the level of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. There had been a constant decline in the party’s vote share since 2008.”
Clearly, the two sides have formulated their arguments, and the issue would be hotly debated in the central committee’s next meeting to be held on May 23-24.
The hardliners are clearly against any alliance or adjustment with the Congress, and they want to restore the party’s old anti-BJP, anti-Congress line.
But the section defending the party’s alliance with the Congress in West Bengal feels that the CPI(M) should take the ties to the national level. “Secular democratic front is the need of the hour, and it won’t be strong enough if you keep Congress out of it,” the politbureau member said. “One defeat should not make you blind to the threat being posed by communal forces in the country. Had there been a secular democratic front in Assam, the result might have been different there.”