Rooting out Left from Narayangarh will be no easy task

At Birpara village, Narayangarh, Paschim Medinipur.

“Party office? Which one? Trinamool or CPI(M)?” asks a local resident.

Only five years ago, a “party office” in most parts of rural West Bengal was synonymous with the CPI(M)’s local unit office. And more so in Narayangarh, 200 km west of Kolkaga, once a bastion of the “party”.

The predominantly rural constituency – dotted with mud huts and occasional pucca houses – had withstood the winds of Mamata’s paribartan (change) in 2011, and elected Surjya Kanta Mishra as its MLA.

Today, Mishra, who is Leader of Opposition in the outgoing Assembly, is the face of the Left in Bengal and the Chief Ministerial hopeful.

Although Narayangarh has been by his side since 1991, this year is going to be a different ball-game for the former Health and Rural Development Minister.

Numbers from the Assembly constituency in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls are not in favour of the Opposition. The Left Front candidate managed 65,000-odd votes, while the Congress managed a mere 4,000.

On the other hand, the Trinamool’s Sandhya Roy (a yesteryear actor) managed 91,000 votes, making her the clear winner. To add to the problems of the Left-Congress combine, the BJP cut through with 17,000-odd votes.

However, Mishra does not bother much for numbers or margins. “Numbers are all nonsense. Even the TMC candidate was trailing in the CM’s constituency in Kolkata,” he told BusinessLine .

CPI(M) workers say they were “not allowed” to have polling agents in 100-odd booths during the Lok Sabha polls. This made a difference of nearly 20,000 votes in the Trinamool's favour. “Mishra trailed because voting was not free and fair in 2014; and because many Trinamool dissidents voted for BJP,” maintains Madan Basu, the Belda zonal committee secretary of the CPI(M).

True, Mishra’s winning margins have crossed 30,000 votes (except in 2001, when it stood at over 26,000, and in 2011, when it was 7,700). But the CPI(M) was then a well-oiled, super-efficient election machine.

The first change with the Trinamool coming to power was the systematic disintegration and weakening of CPI(M)’s organisational structure in Paschim Medinipur through administrative action (police cases and so on). Narayangarh was no different.

Sources say there were 198 cases filed against CPI(M) leaders and workers in Narayangarh itself, and at least 275 arrests. “Party workers were hounded with false cases; or forced to leave homes. Party offices forcefully closed down too,” Basu says.

In 2013, Trinamool took control of 15 of the 16 gram panchayats. Matters only worsened.

“For two years since 2013, I was underground and sheltered across various party (CPI-M) offices,” claims Biswanath Doloi. With cases withdrawn now, for lack of proof, Doloi is back in the party.

Post the fear psychosis, the Trinamool took on development work. Rice at ₹2/kg, the ‘Kanyashree’ and the other rural welfare projects, were carried out dexterously in these areas. This drew many voters to the TMC.

The Trinamool is not taking Mishra lightly. Pradyut Ghosh, an advocate, will take on Surjya Kanta Mishra.

More importantly, Trinamool’s party machinery has found a footing. What else can explain Trinamool posters coming up near a CPI(M) office in Baragopal village. One just could not imagine this happening during the heydays of the Left. There is little doubt that the two are evenly matched. Wall graffiti – proof of which way the family or village will vote – are fairly distributed. As are party flags.

There is one major hiccup for Trinamool though. Nearly, 22 per cent of the 2,00,000-odd voters comprise Santhals, Lodhas, Mundas and Mahalis in villages like Phulerya and Mettal. Nearly, 95 per cent are loyal CPI(M) voters.

By Ghosh’s own admission, “this is where Trinamool has to break through”.

The CPI(M) hasn’t lost hope. Street corners and ‘jathas’ in the areas have yielded a good response, they claim. The party’s membership, which dipped from 1,400-odd members in 2011-12 to 1,200-odd in 2015, has regained the lost numbers

Moreover, there is some disillusionment with the Trinamool rule and that can’t be brushed under the carpet. For one, there are allegations of corruption. MGNREGA payments are slow to come by; panchayats delay disbursals and so on.

“I was working for Trinamool since 2009. But now I’m disillusioned with them. They are equally corrupt,” says a villager. He now takes part in CPI(M)’s rallies, but is not a party member for fear of being marked. There are many others like him across the villages. This has come as fodder for the Marxists.

Narayangarh will go to polls on April 11. For the CPI(M) it is a desperate bid to retain its stronghold. For the Trinamool, it’s all about “slaying the giant”.