Bengal CPM secretary Md Salim made it clear on Wednesday that the party would not seek votes in the name of the INDIA bloc in the state, the comment practically ruling out the possibility of a concerted fight against the BJP in the state.

“The CPM will not ask for votes in the name of INDIA in Bengal,” Salim told The Telegraph on Wednesday and reiterated that the Left Front would fight both the BJP and the Trinamul Congress in the state.

Salim’s statement comes two days after chief minister Mamata Banerjee told reporters in New Delhi that a three-way alliance among Trinamul, the Left Front and the Congress was “possible” in Bengal.

“I don’t have any problem,” Mamata said when asked whether she would accommodate the Left in Bengal.

Asked whether Mamata coming forward to accommodate its bitter rival was a “smart move” that inconvenienced the CPM and put the ball in the Left’s court, Salim said: “Yeh andaaz mujhe achha laaga (I have liked the style). She believes the CPM is non-existent but is ready to go along with us…. But come what may, there will be no ties with Trinamul and there will be no understanding with political parties that are natural, potential or estranged allies of the BJP.”

CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechuri was present at the INDIA meeting on Tuesday where discussions revolved around how to put up a united fight against the BJP.

Talking about a united fight and finally implementing it, however, are two different things, more so for the CPM, which has a direct contest with the Congress in Kerala and an alliance with the Grand Old Party in Bengal.

The Left has been fighting Trinamul and the BJP electorally in the state by forging a loose alliance with the Congress since the Assembly polls in 2016. However, the two parties did not come together in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and there was no one from the Left to represent Bengal in Parliament, whereas the Congress managed to send its two representatives to Lok Sabha.

After Tuesday’s meeting of the INDIA bloc and Mamata’s message to the Congress and the Left, the likelihood of a change in the electoral scene emerged.

The Grand Old Party’s National Alliance Committee summoned its top state
leaders to New Delhi apparently to discuss seat-sharing negotiations with Bengal’s ruling party.

Although most leaders of the Bengal Congress are averse to any understanding with Trinamul, the alacrity shown by the Congress to summon its leaders to New Delhi and talks of a possible seat sharing between the two left the CPM state leadership in a quandary.

“It is for the Congress to decide (on which way to go),” Salim said, before warning that aligning with Trinamul would be “suicidal” for the state Congress.

“Those who were pro-Trinamul within the Congress have already switched sides. The basis of the present Congress is anti-Trinamul. Congress leaders can change steering to a new direction but there is no guarantee whether the wheels (grassroots supporters) will follow suit,” he said.

At a time when the Congress is desperate to ratchet up anti-BJP MPs from across the country, there are serious doubts, a CPM source said, about whether the Congress will heed Salim’s advice.

“In that case, there is a likelihood of an alliance between Trinamul and the Congress in Bengal and we will have to fight the BJP and this alliance.... Given our recent electoral performance, there is not much hope for us in such a scenario,” said a CPM insider.

The CPM’s vote share of 29 per cent in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls dropped to 7 per cent in 2019 with the BJP benefitting from the decline in the Left votebank to pocket 41 per cent votes compared to 17 per cent in 2014.

The worst performance for the party happened in the 2021 Assembly polls with the CPM going unrepresented in the House for the first time post-Independence. The party achieved some improvement in its vote share for the first time since 2014 when the CPM grabbed 12.56 per cent votes in the 2023 rural polls.

It’s not that the Congress has done well in recent elections, but the party’s votes are concentrated in a few districts like Malda, Murshidabad and North Dinajpur, thereby making it a formidable force in these districts.

“It’s natural that Trinamul would like to join hands with the Congress in these districts,” said a political observer.

While a section of the CPM is worried about the possibility of a Trinamul Congress alliance, the hardliners are not that unhappy.

Since its electoral understanding with the Congress in the 2016 Assembly polls, the CPM’s state leadership had been consistently fighting criticism of a large section of the party leaders and supporters for electorally aligning with the Grand Old Party.

Even in the recently held extended state committee meeting of the CPM, leaders from multiple district units had questioned the decision to share political space with Trinamul as part of the INDIA bloc.

The Left party’s INDIA ambivalence became obvious when a senior state committee member said: “The CPM needed to be part of the anti-BJP bloc to remain relevant nationally, while in states like Kerala and Bengal, regional battles have to be fought against INDIA constituents. It’s a Hobson’s choice — it cannot antagonise its core support base by joining hands with Trinamul, while going alone will hurt the party electorally, at least in Bengal.”

Cong meeting

Bengal Congress leaders on Wednesday met Rahul Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge, K.C. Venugopal and other representatives of the high command in Delhi. Bengal Congres chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and veteran Deepa Dasmunsi spoke against an alliance with Mamata Banerjee and her party in Bengal.

The high command, according to those present, said they were only hearing out the state unit, with no pre-conceived ideas on an alliance.

Chowdhury, according to sources, said he could not imagine contesting elections in Bengal with Mamata’s help, even in his “wildest dreams”.

Dasmunsi, said the sources, underscored how Trinamul systematically worked towards destroying the Congress in the state for nearly a decade. Chowdhury said irrespective of whether the alliance was with Trinamul or the Left, in Bengal, the Congress should be looking to contest in at least nine of the 42 seats. Of them, besides Behrampore and Malda South, which the party won in 2019, the Congress fancies its chances in Murshidabad, Jangipur, Malda North, Raiganj, Darjeeling, Purulia, and one other seat from south Bengal.

“There was no decision-making involved. The high command wanted to take the inputs of the state unit. There is, despite the INDIA considerations, nothing set in stone on an alliance in Bengal, yet,” said a source.