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Not much, which is probably why the police initially “underestimated” the movement. According to estimates by law-enforcement agencies, Red Star’s cadres outside of Bhangar do not number more than a few hundred. Police say the outfit first came on the radar just before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, when it put up a candidate — Shikha Sen Roy — for the Dum Dum seat. Sen Roy got 1,544 votes and finished last — but that situation has now changed considerably. According to a senior police officer, Red Star has created “a committee of stakeholders from different political backgrounds and mobilised people from different walks of life”, and “come a long way from 2014”.

When, how did Red Star come into being?

Like all factions of the CPI(ML), Red Star traces its roots to the organisation formed by Kanu Sanyal and Charu Majumdar in 1969 against what they saw as the CPI(M)’S increasing involvement in parliamentary politics. In its present form, Red Star was formed after a faction split from the CPI(ML) in 2009. Its general secretary K N Ramachandran is critical of both the Cpi(maoist) — whose “anarchist line” he has said is “harming the revolutionary movement as a whole” — as well as the Left Front in Bengal and Tripura. According to the Red Star constitution, the Front, in its years in power, became “synonymous with the ruling class parties”.

After walking out of the Kanu Sanyal-led CPI(ML)’S All India Special Conference in January 2009, Ramachandran formed the CPI(ML) Red Flag. The Red Flag, however, splintered again within months — over the issue of joining hands with the CPI(M) in Kerala before the 2009 parliamentary elections. Ramachandran walked out again, and Red Star was born, with the goal of ushering in a communist revolution that steered clear of both the “left adventurist” line of the Cpi(maoist) as well as the “trap of parliamentary