Somnath Majumdar, 22, from Nadia’s Santipur and a staunch BJP supporter till the pandemic hit the country last March, will be in the Brigade Parade Grounds on Sunday to demand a “bikolpo (alternative)” in the form of the fledgling Left-Congress-ISF alliance.

As he puts it, last year’s pandemic-induced lockdown changed the life of a waiter in a Pune bar.

“I had to come back to Bengal as I lost my job.… And as I lived in penury for months and local BJP leaders turned their faces away when I sought their help, I realised that poor people like me can rely only on the Left,” said the youth who had actively campaigned for the BJP before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

“I am a Left supporter now as I got help only from the CPM during the lockdown.… I am telling people to join Sunday’s rally because we need an alternative (in Bengal),” he added.

A day ahead of Sunday’s meeting at the Brigade Parade Grounds, to start at 1pm, Left leaders were banking on people like Somnath who had been helped by the Left’s outreach activities during months of lockdown.

“Reports from the districts suggest that we alone will bring around 7.5 lakh people. The Congress and the ISF will also bring people,” said Left Front chairman Biman Bose, confident of a a million-plus turnout in the show-of-strength rally.

The last time the Left organised a show in Brigade was before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and the one before that was in 2015-end, when the CPM’s organisational plennum was held in Calcutta.

“Organising a programme in Brigade has become very difficult these days, but we had to try and put up a show as it is a matter of survival for us,” said a senior CPM leader.

Given the depleted organisational strength of the Left, which bagged little over 7 per cent vote in the last Lok Sabha polls, and the realities of the pandemic-hit economy, getting 10 lakh people — estimates done by Calcutta Police suggest a turnout of around 4 lakh people is enough to fill the Brigade — would be easier said than done for the Left, Congress and ISF alliance.

However, the organisers of Sunday’s show are hopeful of a packed Brigade.

“A large section of the poor were helped by the 650-odd community kitchens we set up across the state. These kitchens provided free food during the entire lockdown. Along with these kitchens, 29 canteens were set up where food was sold at a nominal cost. All these will hopefully pay off,” said a CPM state committee member.

There is little doubt that the turnout figure will be watched very closely. This is the first time that the Left will hold a Brigade along with the Congress and a fledgling force, the ISF.

Opposition leaders like Bihar’s leader of Opposition Tejashwi Yadav and Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel are likely to speak in the rally too.

“I can’t tell you if it will be historic or not, but Sunday’s show will indeed be unique because this is going to be the first time that Left and Congress leaders will be sharing a political dais at the Brigade...Then, there will be leaders of the ISF,” said a CPM insider.

Leaders from the Left and the Congress have shared the dais at the Brigade before back in 1955 when Nikolai Bulganin and Nikita Khrushchev arrived in India on November for the first official visit of Soviet leaders after 1947.

“Over two million people were there and leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru and Jyoti Basu shared the dais... But that was an apolitical programme,” added a CPM old-timer.

Many political pundits have already written off the poll prospects of the fledgling alliance and called the Bengal polls a Trinamul-BJP contest. “The success of Sunday’s rally will determine if we can effect a turnaround,” said a CPM leader.

Buddhadeb message

Former chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee released a message clarifying his health would not permit him to attend the Brigade rally. He also expressed his pain at missing such a big event at the Brigade.

“The psychological pain to miss out on a big meeting like this is inexplicable. My comrades are fighting in the streets and I’m obeying my doctors because of my medical conditions....A meeting is on at Maidan and I’m stuck in my house is something I could have never imagined. I wish the meeting a success,” he said.