Clearing the air on CPI(M)’s awkward courtship attempt with Kabir’s outfit, Left leader Md Salim said the one-on-one talks were aimed at understanding the state’s emerging political traits to forge the broadest possible unity of like-minded outfits against the TMC and BJP.
That seat-sharing talk, however, fell through before it even properly began after the CPI(M) conveyed to Kabir its stand against “all forms of communal politics” as a precondition for further progress in discussions, said Salim, the Left party’s West Bengal unit secretary.
Kabir, an MLA from Murshidabad’s Bharatpur with past allegiances to the Congress and BJP, was expelled by the TMC in December last year following his initiative to build a Babri-style mosque in Beldanga.
With construction efforts underway amid a significant political dust-up, he launched AJUP and is contesting the assembly polls in alliance with Asaduddin Owaisi‘s AIMIM.
Salim’s meeting with Kabir at a Kolkata hotel on January 28 had led to raised eyebrows in West Bengal’s political circles, many of whom interpreted the move as the CPI(M)’s desperate bid to clutch at straws for a political foothold.
It also attracted sharp criticism from Left Front partners and from within a section of the CPI(M) who argued that the collaboration would deal a mortal blow to the Left’s secular credentials.
“We were in talks with various factions of the extreme Left, and multiple social, cultural and political groups for the past two years.
“If the call is to save Bengal from the fascists and autocrats, you have to understand various traits of political thoughts and processes existing and emerging in Bengal and look for the broadest possible unity,” Salim said in an interview with PTI.
On April 1, Left Front chairman Biman Bose announced that the coalition would directly contest in 252 assembly seats and extend support in 42 others to associate parties, including the Indian Secular Front (ISF) and pro-Naxalite CPI-ML (Liberation).
“The talks with Kabir did not work out because the gaps between us were unbridgeable,” Salim said. “The job was to convince him that communal politics will not help the alternatives that people of Bengal want.”
“Communal politics never survived in the past and will not thrive in Bengal in future. We conveyed to him that people will not tolerate mixing temple-mosque issues with electoral politics,” the CPI(M) politburo member added.
Salim also said, “We told Kabir that whatever he did in the past as a Congress, BJP and TMC leader could be condoned and that he must ask for forgiveness from people before becoming part of the Left alliance.”
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“We were unequivocal that any alliance with the AIMIM kind of parties is not acceptable to the Left. That dialogue was necessary to put our points across.”
Rubbishing perceptions that the Left stood on a somewhat sticky wicket in terms of forging alliances before polls, especially with its partner ISF continuing to explore seat-sharing arrangements with the AIMIM, Salim said electoral pacts were “smoothly completed” for the first time in many years.
“Never before have seat numbers been defined in this manner before nominations,” he said, referring to the Front’s seat-sharing statement.
“We held a series of talks with parties for the last four months. For the first time, CPIML-Liberation, a party which parted ways with us during the Naxalite movement in the 70s, is contesting the polls as our associate. Many other factions of the ultra-Left are helping in campaigns for this resurgent Left in Bengal,” Salim added.
The dominance of extreme right politics in the country is making the extreme Left gravitate towards the mainstream Left, Salim reasoned. “All brands of Left are coming together to counter the growing neo-fascist trend in Indian politics.”
Asked why Salim himself and other senior party leaders like Sujan Chakraborty chose to stay outside the poll fray this time, he said the party decided to utilise the experience of senior comrades for electioneering.
“We decided at the state party conference last year that barring two women members of our state secretariat, no other members will contest the polls this time.
“We will concentrate more on galvanising the campaign, repositioning the party and rejuvenating the organisation by strengthening our grassroots level connect,” he said.
Salim said the idea behind nominations was to put up a mixed bag of veteran, young and middle-aged candidates, with no more than one veteran in each district.
“We have mixed experience with youth, representing various segments of society. You will find many tribals and SC candidates in general seats this time,” he explained.
Speaking of the Left’s prospects in the polls, where the challenge is to establish political relevance in the state and add numbers to its current zero-seat tally, Salim opined that the quandary also threw up an enormous opportunity for his party.
“People are fed up with unemployment, price rise, agrarian crisis and total collapse of the state-administered health and education system. Add to it the environmental degradation. That forms the basis of the cry to revive the Left ecosystem in Bengal,” he said.
“We have managed to forge a united Left this time with the support of divergent social groups. It’s a resurgent Left alternative to these communal, corrupt and failed administrations at the state and Centre,” he stated.
