On a hot mid-May afternoon, rickshaw-pullers Chhotu Sau and Nandalal Saha were discussing elections while waiting for passengers at Tollygunge’s Nankubabu Bazaar.

Saha mentioned the “good young” candidate that the “laal (red)” party has fielded in Jadavpur. Some 50 metres away, a group of CPM workers were busy decorating a rickshaw with red flags and a flex that asked people to vote for Srijan Bhattacharya — Saha’s “good, young” candidate.

Till recently an SFI leader, Srijan, 31, is among the young faces that the “laal party” has thrown into the arena to take on the Goliaths in the hope that they will script a revival now or in 2026.

“The CPM is looking for a change in electoral fortunes. It has hit the nadir and the uphill trip must begin. The Lok Sabha poll provides the platform from where the journey up must begin. Our state secretary Md Salim wants youths to take the driver’s seat and that’s why Srijan, Dipsita Dhar, Sabyasachi Chatterjee, Pratikur Rahaman, Sayan Banerjee, Sonamoni Tudu, Saira Shah Halim are taking centre-stage,” said a young CPM state committee member.

Many in the CPM feel the infusion of fresh blood is helping to dispel the negative image of the Left in Bengal for its protracted stint in power. But has the CPM’s young brigade done enough to have swayed people to vote for them in a make-or-break poll?

“Yes,” says CPM’s Serampore candidate Dipsita, 30, whose campaign, many say, had caught the imagination of voters.

“The 2021 Assembly poll was binary driven. Those who wanted to defeat the Trinamool had voted for the BJP. Between then and now, several skeletons have tumbled out of the Trinamool cupboard. The panchayat polls were a farce. People are fed up with the TMC. This anger of the people against the ruling party is helping us break the binary,” Dipsita said.

Sheikh Mohd, who runs a grocery store at Lichubagan in Hooghly’s Dankuni, agreed.

“Dipsita has my support. I appreciate her for raising core issues like price rise, education, employment when other parties are caught in the mandir-masjid, Hindu-Muslim rhetoric,” Sheikh said.

Though the strategy has yet to taste success, the CPM has been putting young guns on the frontline since the 2021 Assembly elections. A debate triggered this change in CPM’s stance — both inside and outside the party — that flagged the need for a generational shift.

At the CPM plenum held in Calcutta in 2015, P. Rajeev, who is now the law minister in Pinarayi Vijayan’s Kerala cabinet, advocated the need for a cadre policy that would help infuse youths in leadership roles. Rajeev’s advocacy for youths came seven years after the party at its Coimbatore Congress in 2008 decided to cap the age limit for central committee members at 80. The central committee further revised the ceiling to 75 in 2021 and state committees were asked to set their own bar.

The Bengal CPM pegged the retirement age at 75 for state committee members. At its 26th state conference in 2022, the CPM inducted 24 young faces in the state committee and a relatively “younger” Salim took over as the party’s secretary from septuagenarian Surjya Kanta Mishra.

The age debate that began in 2008 took over a decade to crystallise and wasn’t crucial time lost in the process?
“No, says,” Sabyasachi Chatterjee, 39, the party’s Howrah candidate.

“It is easy to point fingers at senior leaders when the stocks are down. Infusing young blood has been a continuous process in the party. Salim-da and Samik-da (Lahiri) are proof of that as they became MPs in their youth. In politics, shift is important, so is the timing,” Chatterjee said.

But is the mere infusion of young blood enough to script a Left turnaround?

CPM leaders say that from the streets of Howrah to the bylanes of Serampore, semi-urban Tamluk, tribal Jhargram and refugee colonies in Jadavpur, the people are taking note of these young lieutenants and their
year-round battles for “insaaf (justice)”.

“The youth need jobs but corruption is snatching it away from them. Sabyasachi is one of the faces in the fight against graft,” said Swapan Sarkar, an elderly shop-owner in Howrah’s Kadamtala.

Young AC mechanic and Topsia resident Md Mansoor airs a different view. “They are good but let them gather strength. My vote is for the candidate best positioned to defeat the BJP.”

Cut to Jadavpur’s refugee colonies in Tollygunge’s Baburam Ghosh Road. On a hot May evening, people stepped out of their homes to shake hands with Srijan, armed with boy-next-door looks and an affable personality. But is it enough to catch votes? Srijan admits that the “battle is tough but achievable”.

“In this game of revival, women votes are important,” agreed Srijan.

“In my campaign, I am talking about roti, kapda aur makaan as well as issues of health, education, and jobs. These must find a place in the political discourse. That’s where the Left’s path to revival lies,” said Srijan.

The Left is walking a new path but they would hope it’s not a cul de sac.