The attacks on CPM offices in Tripura have provided the Left party with the “right ammunition” to reactivate its organisation and cadres to take on the ruling BJP and also check the rise of Trinamul in the run-up to the 2023 Assembly elections.
At least six CPM offices, including the state headquarters in Agartala, were vandalised in three of Tripura’s eight districts on Wednesday evening by suspected BJP activists in what appears to be a retaliation to the alleged attack on its karyakartas by CPM cadres on Monday and Wednesday. Three media houses were also vandalised on Wednesday.
Left Front watchers said the CPM, which had in August announced a month-long September Campaign against the “anti-people policies” of the BJP-led government, including the three contentious farm laws, will now flag the attacks to highlight the “growing lawlessness” in the state to send a message to voters and its cadres that it remains a strong contender in the three-way race for political supremacy involving the BJP, Left Front and the Trinamul and get another shot at power in 2023.
With the Congress in freefall and Trinamul trying to rebuild its state unit, the CPM poses a direct threat to the ruling BJP. In the 2018 state polls, the BJP had bagged 43.59 per cent of the vote share to win 36 seats to CPM’s 42.22 per cent votes. The CPM had won 16 seats.
“The attacks and the Trinamul’s emergence have galvanised the CPM and Left Front having realised doing routine party activities will not help them check either the BJP or the Trinamul. The attacks have provided the CPM with the right ammunition to sustain its anti-BJP campaign till the 2023 polls,” a veteran political watcher said.
“Expect the CPM to regularly organise big programmes to convey that the CPM-led Left Front was a serious player in the 2023 state polls against the BJP, not the Trinamul. Earlier they were thinking what to do but the attacks and the Trinamul have forced them to concertised these programmes,” another political watcher said, pointing to the slew of programmes chalked out by the Left to take on the BJP after the attacks.
Left Front convener Bijan Dhar told The Telegraph that the CPM state committee had on Saturday organised an online meeting on the prevailing situation, including the recent attacks by suspected BJP members, and its future course of action.
He said the Left Front constituents will hold a mass convention in Agartala on September 21 to mobilise support for the September 27 Bharat Bandh seeking the repeal of the three contentious farm laws passed by the Centre.
According to Dhar, the attack on CPM offices are “linked” to its ongoing September Campaign. “Since they (BJP) have no other strategy to stop us, they resorted to the attacks. But we will continue with our pro-people campaign,” Dhar said.
CPM central committee member Jiten Chowdhary said Saturday’s online meeting also decided to hold a protest on September 16 in Agartala against the recent violence where all the 16 CPM MLAs will participate.
“We have instructed all our units not to be provoked. They (BJP) will try to resort to violence to hide their non-performance and anti-people policies and we will try to expose these before the people,” Chowdhary said.
The CPM will also hold a press meet in Delhi on September 14 besides seeking an audience with the state governor and the president Ram Nath Kovind on the alleged BJP misrule in Tripura.
The ruling BJP too seems to be targeting the CPM than the Trinamul.
Tripura chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb tweeted on Friday, “For past 3 years, Tripura has seen all round peace & prosperity with radical improvements in law & order situation. Political opposition led by CPM have been rattled by this. In their desperation to regain lost political ground, they attempted to plunge Tripura into lawlessness.”
The CPM and the Trinamul have in return accused the BJP of perpetrating lawlessness.
