Kolkata, May 4 The Congress-Left Front bonhomie in West Bengal has raised a couple of questions in the corridors of power and among political pundits in the state.
The first question is, how credible is this election-oriented show of unity that has been evident in West Bengal since the 2016 Assembly elections, when for the first time these two forces entered into a seat sharing arrangement.
Political observers are wondering if this show of camaraderie is only specific to the personal equations between state Congress President Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and CPI(M)’s state Secretary Mohd Salim (both are contesting from Murshidabad District) or if this percolates to the grassroots workers in the grand old party and the Left Front.
According to political pundits, since 2016 the show of unity between the two parties is only visible after the seat sharing agreements have been finalised and fizzles out completely after the elections are over.
The same thing was witnessed during the 2021 West Bengal Assembly elections which reduced both the Congress and Left Front to zero in the state Assembly.
After the Assembly elections in 2016 and 2021 there were many opportunities for both the parties to continue their bonhomie and take on the ruling Trinamool Congress jointly, but they refrained from building on their partnership.
After the 2016 Assembly elections there were burning issues like the arrests of several Trinamool Congress leaders in connection with Ponzi scams and the controversies over the Narada video scam where several senior ruling party leaders and an IPS officer were seen accepting cash on camera in lieu of favours.
However, instead of organising joint movements on these issues, the CPI(M) and Congress leaderships preferred to go their own ways, diluting the impact.
The BJP took advantage of this void and started emerging as the principal Opposition force in the state by organising structured movements.
The BJP reaped the benefit of that and emerged as the main Opposition force after the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and the 2021 Assembly elections.
Consequently, in both these elections the Left Front and the Congress were reduced to marginal forces in terms of parliamentary and legislative presence.
In the 2021 Assembly elections the Congress and Left Front had partnered again and this time they were joined by the All India Secular Front (AISF) as the third partner. The results were zero for the Congress and the Left Front and just one for AISF. Predictably, the election-oriented bonhomie fizzled out again.
Since 2021, West Bengal has been on the boil on multiple issues of corruption charges against the ruling party and the three forces launched protests separately and not jointly.
The BJP again took advantage of that void and the Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari travelled from one corner of the state to the other, spreading the counter-ruler narrative and this consolidated his party’s position in the Opposition space further.
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