Bihar: Is Left on revival path thwarting BJP, Cong, JD(U), RJD

By Manoj Kumar

Patna: The once mighty Left, all but written off by political rivals, is making a slow but sure comeback in Bihar. There has been enough hint in a year and thereabouts that its primary constituency, the poor and the underprivileged, has started warming up to it again. The impressive turnout at the rallies of the Left parties is a pointer to the trend.

Two rallies organised by the CPI and the CPI-ML in Patna last month saw huge popular participation. This was a surprise for both the parties, who are not known to splurging money on gathering crowds like other established political players such as the JD(U), the Congress, the BJP and the RJD. The CPI’s Janakrosh (public outrage) rally on 25 October and the Khabardar rally of the CPI-ML on 30 October were as impressive as the 27 October Hunkar rally of the BJP and the Adhikar rally of the ruling JD(U) held in November last year.

Remember, the former has been in power in the state for the last eight years and the BJP has been out of it only four months ago. So the people’s participation could be called spontaneous. The revival of the Left promises to make the 2014 parliamentary polls interesting. In the 2010 assembly elections, the Left parties were able to win just one seat out of the 243 in the state, their worst performance in the last two decades.

So what is causing the change in the public mood?

The immediate reason, according to political observers, is a series of acquittals by the Patna High Court in Dalit killing cases and the suspected role of the ruling Nitish Kumar government in it. In the past 18 months, all the accused in the Laxmanpur-Bathe, Miyanpur, Bathani Tola and Nagari massacres have been acquitted by the High Court after their initial conviction in lower courts. In all these cases, Dalits—as many as 123—were killed by activists of Ranvir Sena, a private militia of upper caste landlords. The former are in a state of fear now.

“The Dalits, the extremely backward communities and the Pasmanda Muslims are looking for a better alternative as they are disillusioned with the Nitish Kumar regime. Perhaps, they see only the Left can fight for them,” observed CPI-ML general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya. According to him, what has apparently proved disastrous for the present regime is its move to disband the Justice Amir Das Commission formed to probe the political links of Ranvir Sena.

The Dalits had got suspicious about the intention of the ruling regime after the commission was wound up. And their worst fears came true when all the Ranvir Sena men accused of killing their fellow members were acquitted. Using the anger gripping the victim community, the Left outfits have now suddenly intensified agitations against the ruling regime, exposing its much-hyped ‘Development with Justice’ slogan. And this is getting huge support from the politically significant Dalits and Mahadalits. The CPI-ML is now raising the issue of HC acquittals quite firmly and even held a rally in Patna over the issue. The huge support for the CPI-ML’s impromptu ‘March for Justice’ undertaken at Laxmanpur-Bathe last month has emboldened the Left.

“The general masses are now burning with anger due to anti-poor policies of the government and their large participation in the Left rallies was a clear expression of that sentiment. They already have delivered their verdict against the present regime,” said state CPI’s general secretary Rajendra Prasad Singh.

However, some political observers don’t see a Left revival yet. “Rally crowd is not a spontaneous crowd and hence not reliable,” opines prominent social scientist Sachindra Narayan. Whatever the reality of the crowd, Dalit and Mahadalits are considered politically significant in Bihar as they are a huge vote bank. Post-Mandal era, they have come to understand their rights better and they have been shifting their loyalty depending whom they trust to deliver more. They were previously “exploited” by the Left and now being lured away by various parties, especially the JD(U) which has gone aggressively wooing them.

The Left was once a powerful force in Bihar and till 1990s they had a significance presence in Bihar’s politics with about 39 seats in the 324-member assembly of undivided Bihar. Their support base started crumbling soon after they lent their support to the Lalu Prasad government, which came to power in 1990. Lalu engineered a split in the Left, with sections of the latter joining the RJD. It has been a journey downhill since then.