TMC, CPI(M) wary ahead of Bengal polls
KOLKATA: Even before the declaration of the final election results in Tripura, it became evident that the fall of the Manik Sarkar government would have an impact on political equations in West Bengal, starting with the panchayat polls due in a few months.
Leaders of West Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress realised that the party had been reduced to a virtual nonentity in Tripura, where the BJP ended the Left’s 25-year rule.
For Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee, who started making inroads into Tripura five years ago and found some acceptance among the anti-Left Bengali population, Saturday’s results came as a a big setback to her hopes of emerging as a regional force before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
She met Congress, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Samajwadi Party and Janata Dal leaders and took part in rallies organised against the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government in 2017. Communist Party of India (Marxist), or CPI (M), leaders too have taken the side of Trinamool members in Parliament.
On Saturday, Banerjee tried to downplay the victory of the BJP and blamed the CPI(M). Without naming BJP president Amit Shah, who said earlier in the day that the party’s next target was Bengal, Banerjee said: “An ant doesn’t become a bird if it grows wings. Those who used muscle and money power to win this election should not start dreaming about winning in Bengal. This is CPI(M)’s defeat, not BJP’s victory,” she added.
According to Prosenjit Bose, an economist who was formerly with the CPI(M), the first casualty of a resurgent BJP in Bengal will be the Communist party. “What they (the BJP) have done in Tripura, they don’t have to do that to the TMC, but they will certainly do that to the Left and the Congress,” he said.
Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh sounded buoyant on Saturday. “Outcome of the Tripura election will definitely ensure the rise of the BJP in Bengal. That will start from the panchayats,” he said. Panchayat elections in the state could take place in May or June.
The ripples of the CPI (M)’s shock defeat in Tripura were also felt in faraway Kerala, now the last bastion of the Communists, who found it difficult to explain the trouncing they received at the hands of their arch enemy, which has been trying to raise its profile in the southern state. Party veteran VS Achuthanandan, who always supported general secretary Sitaram Yechury’s call for a tie-up with the Congress, asked CPI(M) leaders to “do enough introspection and see dangers ahead.” State opposition leader Ramesh Cehnnithala said the results clearly showed the need for a united fight against the BJP. “Yechury was right. I hope Kerala leaders will open their eyes at least for now,” he said.