For the Left, Bihar polls another challenge for staying relevant

New Delhi, Sep 26 (IANS) Once a potent force in Bihar, mobilising landless labourers, small farmers, and marginalised communities, the Left parties have seen their influence erode dramatically over the past few decades.

Thus, they heaved a sigh of relief when in Assembly elections 2020, contesting in alliance with the Opposition platform of Mahagthbandhan (MGB) or Grand Alliance, the Left parties together succeeded in winning 16 of the 29 seats allotted to it.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist Leninist) Liberation General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya emerged as the face leading the resurgence with his party grabbing 12 of the 19 constituencies it contested.

The Communist Party of India, and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) managed to win two each out of six and four seats, respectively, that these were allotted.

According to a leader privy to 2020 seat negotiations, the Left were initially offered nine seats, which Bhattacharya managed to increase through deft negotiations and citing examples from on-ground assessment.

This time, the parties are looking at “around 40 seats” of the 243 Assembly seats in Bihar.

They contend that the extra seats can be allotted from the Congress, which failed to make a mark last time. Out of 70 Assembly constituencies it was allotted, the Congress managed to win 19.

Had the Left been given more seats, claim Left leaders, MGB could have won the elections.

In the 2015 assembly poll, the CPI(ML) Liberation contested 98 seats and won three, the CPI lost all the 98 it contested while the CPI(M) too got nothing out of 43.

In 2010, neither the CPI(ML) Liberation, nor the CPI(M), could win any of the 104 and 30 seats the parties contested, respectively, while the CPI managed to win one out of 56.

Earlier, Communist parties in Bihar enjoyed a large presence in the state that was reduced following the Mandal Commission issue.

While politicians like Lalu Prasad caught onto the caste factor to gain prominence in the electoral filed, the Left continued to debate a “class or caste” as a policy.

Several other reasons were also involved in the setting of the reds. But when Kanhaiya Kumar was nominated as a Left candidate from Begusarai Lok Sabha seat in 2019, the adage “Leningrad of Bihar” returned to the area. However, when the real Leningrad had been re-christened as St. Petersburg in Russia, how could this Bihar district retain the legacy?

The student leader from Jawaharlal Nehru University has himself now abandoned the CPI for the Congress. Thus, it was the MGB that breathed life into a waning Left; though Bhattacharya’s role in the resurgence can not be overlooked. Earlier, the Communists could boast of a legacy in Bihar.

Chandrashekhar Singh, elected from Teghra, an assembly segment in Begusarai Lok Sabha constituency in the 1962 assembly polls, continued his winning spree till 2010. Kedarnath Singh, Suraj Narayan Singh, Shatrughan Prasad Singh, and Ram Binod Paswan later took up the Left movement.

The Left also fell out of the popularity race in Bhagalpur after dominating in various assembly segments of this Lok Sabha constituency.

Ajit Sarkar represented Purnia assembly constituency in Bihar Assembly four times (between 1980 and 1998). He rose in the party from being a student leader, whose contribution is still remembered by local people. He was shot dead by unidentified persons in Purnia district in 1998.

Former Union minister and senior CPI leader Chaturanan Mishra was a three-time member of the Bihar legislative assembly (from 1969 to 1980). He was elected to Rajya Sabha in 1984 and 1990, and to Lok Sabha (1996) from Madhubani. He was cabinet minister for agriculture in the United Front government in 1996.

--IANS

jb/pgh