With less than a month to go for the beginning of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the once mighty CPI(M) finds itself tangled in a web of its own making in West Bengal. It is the largest party in the Left Front, whose other members include the CPI, Forward Bloc, RSP and other smaller parties. The Left Front has a seat-sharing arrangement with the Congress in the state as part of the opposition INDIA coalition. It also has a separate seat-sharing agreement with the Indian Secular Front (ISF) that has continued since the 2021 state Assembly polls, when the ISF was launched.
But while the Congress is not party to this agreement, the other parties in the Left Front are unhappy with the ISF’s demands, to the extent of questioning the CPI(M)’s eagerness to accommodate the new party.
Out of the 42 seats in the state, the Left Front had agreed to leave six for the ISF, apart from 12 for the Congress — leaving 24 seats to carve up between the Front’s own constituent parties. Thereafter, it announced candidates for 17 seats, while the Congress named its candidates on eight, with four more left to be announced.
Trouble began when last week the ISF announced the names of its candidates for eight seats across West Bengal, including Malda-North, Joynagar, Murshidabad, Barasat, Basirhat, Mathurapur, Jhargram and Serampore.
As a result, the Left Front won’t be able to avoid a “friendly fight” in at least five seats in West Bengal. Of these, the CPI(M) is willing to forgo two seats from its Left Front quota, while the Forward Bloc has agreed to do the same on one seat. But within the Left Front, the Forward Bloc and CPI are unhappy with the overall arrangements, as a result of which, the Front is delaying naming any more candidates, until further discussions.
An agitated Left Front chairman Biman Bose said, “We have no adjustment with the ISF. We are talking, and if any adjustment happens, we will let you know.”
The CPI(M) has already let go of two seats from its Left Front quota — Purulia and Raigunj — for the Congress, in return for Murshidabad, which the Congress has left for the CPI(M). But one of the seats claimed by the ISF is Murshidabad, while the Forward Bloc has staked its claim on Purulia from its Left Front quota, which the CPI(M) has unilaterally given to the Congress.
The ISF has also announced a candidate in Serampore, where the CPI(M) has named its student leader Dipshita Dhar as candidate. Meanwhile, as part of the Left Front, the Forward Bloc has also been allotted the Barasat seat, while Basirhat has gone to the CPI, on both of which the ISF has staked its claim.
The Left Front met Friday last week to sort out the dispute over seats between the ISF on the one hand and its own constituents on the other. A senior CPI(M) leader said after the meeting, “The ISF was formed just before the 2021 Assembly polls, so this is their first Lok Sabha elections. Naturally, if we have to give them more seats, we have to curtail our numbers. But our allies in the Left Front aren’t accepting that.”
Incidentally, in the 2021 Assembly elections, the ISF was the only party to win a seat apart from the ruling Trinamool Congress, and the principal opposition BJP. The Left and Congress drew a blank.
A senior Forward Bloc leader said after Friday’s meeting, “The CPI(M) has an understanding with the ISF, but the latter is not part of the Left Front. Why should we sacrifice our seats for a party like the ISF? The pact with the ISF is in the CPI(M)’s interest, not that of its Left Front allies, and for that, the CPI(M) will have to pay a price.” A senior leader said the indication was that while these parties wouldn’t put up candidates against the CPI(M), they wouldn’t extend the courtesy to the ISF, or even the Congress.
On Saturday, the CPI(M) announced the names of four more of its candidates as part of the Left Front. This includes party state secretary Md Selim from Murshidabad (where he will face an ISF candidate), its former Nabadwip Lok Sabha MP Alokesh Das from Ranaghat, besides two first-timers — Shyamali Pradhan from Bolpur and Sukriti Ghoshal from Bardhaman-Durgapur.
The CPI(M)’s Biman Bose, who is also the Left Front chairman, said on Saturday, “We are continuing our talks within the Left Front. We will let you know more after we finalise the candidates.”
Meanwhile, the Congress Sunday named a candidate for Cooch Behar, where the Forward Bloc had already announced its candidate. Observers said this was a tit-for-tat move for the Forward Bloc nominating a candidate against the Congress from Purulia.
