CPM tries to reconnect with masses
KOLKATA: On March 29, 1982, around 300 CPI(M) and other Left party supporters from the Hura region of Purulia district adjacent to Bihar (now Jharkhand) packed dry food and set out on foot for Calcutta (now Kolkata). Their mission: To draw the Centre’s attention to a 16-point demand Jyoti Basu, then Bengal chief minister, had placed before Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
The men took eight days to cover 219 km. It was Bengal’s first political jatha (a procession covering long distance) that passed through four districts. A month later, the Left Front formed its second government, winning 238 out of 294 seats in the Assembly elections, seven seats more than what it got in 1977.
The Centre did not meet most of Basu’s demands but the CPI(M) understood how road shows could be used for electoral gains.
Thirty three years and two crushing Assembly defeats later, the Marxists were seen in another road show a few days ago. In a bid to reconnect with the masses before the crucial panchayat elections in 2018, thousands of people took part in a few hundred processions. They were asked to cover a whopping 25,000km connecting the 19 districts of Bengal between October 22 and November 3. Given the diminished strength of the Marxists, it was a Himalayan task.
The programme was undertaken with the rural polls in the state only about six months away. In the 2016 Assembly elections, CPI(M) won 26 seats in a house of 294 — its worst performance ever in the state where it ruled for 34 years at a stretch till 2011.
“Our target was to reach out to people in 77,000 polling booths areas spread across 40,000 villages and 126 cities and towns. We could not meet the target but the response of the people was overwhelming,” said Left Front chairman Biman Bose, 77, who himself walked for around 250km in four districts. “There will be more processions in November since we are observing the centenary year of the Russian Revolution,” Bose told HT as one of the mammoth processions reached Kolkata last week.
To include more people and address issues that affect all citizens, more than 100 mass organisations representing industrial workers, farmers, students, artisans, women, et al, organised the processions under the banner of the Bengal Platform of Mass Organisations (BPMO).
The 19-point charter of demands targeted at the BJP-led NDA government as well as the Trinamool in Bengal covered issues ranging from unemployment and the plight of small industry to agricultural subsidy and deaths caused by dengue.
Those who took part not only carried innovative banners and cutouts but also made maximum use of the red colour in their attire and campaign material to draw attention from long distance. Another characteristic feature of the jathas was extensive use of tribal drums and flutes.
Analysing reports received from the districts, CPI(M) leaders have found that owing to shortage of manpower and weak organisation at the grassroots, only 62% of the target could be achieved. Maximum response from people was witnessed in Burdwan and Bankura districts.
The strategy, said Shyamal Chakraborty, senior CPI(M) leader and convenor of BPMO, was to take out small processions from villages and merge these with bigger processions at region and district levels.