Wisdom, much like the Revolution, can dawn belatedly. That, at least, seems to be the case with the wise men in Alimuddin Street. A post-mortem of the shocking debacle in the recent assembly elections in Bengal — the Communist Party of India (Marxist) failed to win a single seat in its former fief — has resulted in a note that admits that the conflation of the Trinamul Congress with the Bharatiya Janata Party resulted in sending confusing signals. The comrades, not the people, remain a confused lot. The strategic — yet another ‘historic’? — blunder of attempting to project a tacit understanding between the TMC and the BJP, the two sides of the same divisive coin according to the Marxists, only goes to show how removed the Marxists are from the reality on the ground. That the CPI(M) decided to enter into an alliance with an allegedly sectarian outfit undermined its long and cherished legacy of secularism and made the allegation of the TMC being communal ring hollow. The results show that both the charge and the party had been summarily dismissed by the people of Bengal.

But then hindsight is better than ignorance. Now that the Bengal CPI(M) has managed to identify the greater adversary, it would be interesting to see the ramifications of the discovery in terms of political alignments. Already, in Tripura, where the Left had been booted out by the Right, there are whispers of the formation of an alliance that may see the CPI(M) inch towards the TMC. The latter is gearing up to challenge the BJP there. The signs of a broader consolidation of Opposition parties at the national level are emerging too. In fact, the Bengal CPI(M)’s epiphany may have been brought by a nudge from its leaders in Delhi. It must be mentioned that segments within the Left fraternity — the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) is an example — had been opposed to the CPI(M)’s eagerness to paint the TMC and the BJP with the same brush. If a broader coalition of secular, progressive forces that includes the Left and the TMC were to take shape closer to the parliamentary elections in 2024, Bengal’s comrades would have to contend with the dilemma of being friends with Mamata Banerjee nationally and enemies in Bengal. Achieving that balancing act may demand greater wisdom.