CPI(M)’s Party Congress Draft Is Underestimating The Mamata Phenomenon In West Bengal

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has released its draft political resolution for the 24th congress of the Party to be held in Madurai in April this year. The last party congress was held in 2022 and so the coming congress held after three years, is expected to make an appraisal of the party’s performance in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections as also formulate the best strategy for fighting the ruling BJP and the Sangh Parivar’s onslaught against the core values of the Indian constitution.

The draft of the political resolution will be discussed by all the state units at all levels. The amendments can be suggested and those will be taken up at the Madurai Party Congress. The political resolution will be finalized after the amendments to the draft approved in the Congress, are incorporated. The final political resolution adopted in the party congress will guide the CPI(M) leadership and its members for the next three years.

CPI(M) is a constituent of the INDIA bloc, which is the conglomerate of the Congress, the regional parties and the Left parties, including the CPI(M), to take on the ruling BJP-led Union government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The CPI(M) draft says the Party will cooperate with INDIA bloc parties in Parliament and on agreed issues outside Parliament. The Party will join Hands with all secular democratic forces on issues of authoritarian onslaughts against democracy, the use of draconian laws to suppress dissent and large-scale privatization.

Fair enough. This is a viable strategy. But in its assessment of regional parties, the CPI(M) draft makes a surprising omission.. The Party draft divides the regional parties into three categories- the first are those parties which are consistently opposed to the BJP. These are parties like the DMK, SP, RJD, NCP, AAP and JMM. Secondly, there are parties which are allied with the BJP and are in the NDA like JD(U), TDP,JD(S), AGP, Jana Sena and smaller parties. The third category includes BJD, YSRCP and AIADMK. BRS has been kept separately.

Now the question comes: where is the place for Trinamool Congress in the three categories mentioned in the draft? TMC is the third largest party within the India bloc in Lok Sabha, after the Congress and SP. The party won all those 29 seats defeating the BJP. After the Lok Sabha polls last year, there were ten by-polls in Bengal. TMC won all those by higher margins, even defeating the BJP in its two sitting seats. How can the CPI(M) draft ignore the existence of the TMC while categorizing the regional parties? Just because the TMC dethroned the CPI(M)-led Left Front in 2011 assembly elections in Bengal and has been winning assembly elections ever since, does not mean that its role in the INDIA bloc is to be ignored.

However, Trinamool Congress has been mentioned in a separate para in the draft. The draft says the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal is an ‘autocratic party based on a criminal-corrupt-political nexus, which is virulently anti-communist’. It can be CPI(M)’s own observation. The CPI(M) is entitled to it. The draft says the TMC is electorally opposed to the BJP and seeks to maintain the binary of the TMC versus BJP to marginalize the CPI(M) and the Left. The observation is funny. If there is a binary of TMC versus BJP, that is due to the specific political and electoral situation in Bengal.TMC is a political party, it will seek to gain strength by marginalizing its opponents including the BJP and the CPI(M). It is not the task of the TMC to help the CPI(M) coming out of such electoral situation in the state. It is up to the state CPI(M) through its movements and actions in fighting both the TMC and the BJP. If the state CPI(M) fails to do that and becomes a virtual nonentity in the eyes of the voters of Bengal, the blame lies with the state CPI(M), not to any other party.

This type of distortion in the assessment of the ruling TMC in West Bengal made in the CPI(M) draft of the Congress, is harmful for the CPI(M) in arriving at a correct strategy for turnaround in the state. Throughout history, even including our epics, there is a saying that you can fight an enemy only by knowing fully their strengths and weaknesses. The central leadership of the CPI(M) has been committing a big mistake by not objectively assessing the political situation in West Bengal.

The CPI(M) central leadership has to admit that West Bengal is a completely different case compared to Kerala. Kerala, the state ruled by the Left Democratic Front led by the CPI(M), is going to assembly polls in 2026 along with West Bengal. The battle will be tough. All along in Kerala, the fight has been between two more or less equals. Even if the LDF loses in 2026 polls to the Congress-led UDF, that will be a normal feature in Kerala politics. The LDF including CPI(M) and the CPI will be retaining their electoral base and the LDF could bid for victory in the 2031 assembly polls. The KeralaCPI(M)’s political base of trade unions, peasants and students have remained intact. It may even expand in the coming period.

But in West Bengal, the political situation is completely different. The CPI(M) has been continuing to lose its base among all sections, especially, the workers, peasants and women in the last thirteen years. The party’s voting percentage is in the range of 5 to 6 per cent now. The minorities are predominantly with the TMC, so also the unorganized workers and women. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has built her own charisma which is phenomenal. These are hard realities. Keeping these in mind only, the state unit of the CPI(M) can work on its future strategy for turnaround based on long term planning.

The West Bengal state conference is scheduled for February 22 to 25 at Dankuni. The delegates must get an objective assessment of the state politics and how both the BJP and the TMC can be fought. The draft must be amended to include that TMC belongs to the first category of regional parties which are opposed to the BJP. Or if the CPI(M) leadership thinks otherwise, let them be included in any other category, but the party’s final political resolution should not come out with a half-baked picture of the political reality in West Bengal.

The CPI(M) fails to understand that the 18th Lok Sabha polls addressed an all-India phenomenon, namely, whether BJP was to gain a thumping majority, or if its wings would be clipped. This was the essence of the binary and the Left in West Bengal hardly addressed this issue. For the Left, TMC and BJP being equivalent, it overrated the threat of TMC, allowing TMC to thwart BJP and marginalize the Left by default. This debacle, that way, was largely CPI(M)’s own making.

The CPI(M) has to understand that Mamata is no Jayalalithaa or Mayawati-like woman leader. She has high instincts about assessing the political trends and she is constantly monitoring and taking corrective actions, when needed. She is a 24×7 political leader having personal connect with the poor and women. She is an organizational expert also, otherwise she could not have built the organization from scratch after leaving the Congress in 1998 and ousted the high powered Left Front from power in 2011 assembly elections.

There are many weaknesses in the functioning of the Trinamool Congress and at the same time it has areas of strength. The State CPI(M) as also other Left Front partners have to discuss how to exploit the weaknesses of the TMC and at the same time prepare alternative way to fight the strengths. The CPI(M) state conference has to discuss all these with an open mind and come to some concrete action programme. It is no use giving excuse of binary and terming the TMC autocratic and corrupt. The issue is how to get back the support base of the Left which eroded in the last decade. Only by strengthening the party organization and expanding the support base, the CPI(M) can fight the binary of the electoral situation in West Bengal. There is no other way. (IPA Service)