As CPM rapidly loses ground in Bengal, top leaders say party needs to step out of denial mode

Kolkata: Once a formidable force in Bengal politics, the CPM is now just a shadow of its past as it struggles to hold on to its ground, with the BJP fast replacing it as the main opposition to the ruling TMC. The CPM-led Left Front, known as the main architect of the Panchayati Raj system since its inception in 1978, used to register hands down victory in most of the zila parishads of the state. But this time, it has been struggling to find candidates to file nominations in several seats. “It is true that in most of the places, we have not been able to file nominations. One of the reasons is violence by the Trinamool Congress, but there are several places where we had a tough time in finding candidates,” a senior CPM leader said on the condition of anonymity. According to the list of nominations filed by various parties for the panchayat polls, the TMC is way ahead of its rivals in all the three segments of the panchayat polls — gram panchayat, panchayat samiti and zila parishad. [caption id=“attachment_4449911” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  CPM leaders protest against the TMC in Bengal. Image courtesy: Twitter/@cpimspeak[/caption] But tothe  utter surprise of several political observers, the BJP outnumbered the Congress and the CPM to emerge as the second largest party after the ruling TMC in the number of nominations filed for the upcoming panchayat polls. The Left leadership does not have a proper explanation about the BJP filing more nominations than them except the theory of a “tacit understanding between BJP and TMC”. CPM politburo member and MP Mohammed Salim said the number of party candidates should not be measured only in terms of nominations filed, as the CPM is fighting as a Left Front constituent and in several seats it has extended support to secular and democratic independent candidates. But several top CPM leaders agreed that the party needs to stop living in denial by coming up with “lame excuses of tacit understanding between the BJP and the TMC” and pull up its socks to ensure that the BJP does not replace the Left as the main Opposition in the state. “We have lost our mass base, our vote share has decreased. But instead of fixing it, we are blaming others. We should learn lessons before it is too late. Time is running out,” a senior CPM leader said. A few days back, former chief minister and senior CPM leader Buddhadeb Bhattacharya had called for defeating the TMC and the BJP in the rural polls. Another leader said it did not send the right message to the people that the top brass of the state unit was busy debating the party’s political line at the Hyderabad Party Congress when the cadres faced the heat to file nominations. The single phase polls will be held at 48,650 seats in 3,358 gram panchayats, 9,217 seats in 341 panchayat samitis and 825 seats in 20 zila parishads on 14 May. The TMC has filed 1,000 nominations for the zila parishads, followed by the BJP with 782 nominations. The CPM and the Congress have filed 537 and 407 nominations respectively after scrutiny. For the panchayat samitis, the TMC has filed 12,590 nominations, followed again by the BJP, which has filed 6,149 nominations. The figures for the CPM and the Congress are 4,400 and 1,740 respectively after scrutiny. The picture is the same in the case of gram panchayats for which the TMC has filed 58,978 nominations, BJP 27,935, CPM 17,319 and the Congress 7,313 respectively. State BJP president Dilip Ghosh said the figures state that the BJP has emerged as the only alternative to “the TMC’s misrule in the state. The Left is a spent force”. TMC Secretary General Partha Chatterjee said the party is not bothered about the BJP’s rise and said the Left should decide whether they are serious about fighting the BJP or not. “On one hand, the CPM is saying it is against the BJP while on the other hand, we are seeing that CPM cadres are joining the BJP to fight us. It only exposes the double standards of the CPM,” Chatterjee said.