An uncommon determine could possibly be noticed in Kolkata on Sunday forward of the Assembly Elections in West Bengal in March. A person dressed as God Shiva was seen campaigning for the CPI(M), a celebration that postures itself as a uber-secular communist occasion.
A person dressed as Lord Shiva campaigns for CPM in Kolkata forward of subsequent month’s Assembly elections. (📸 by Shashi Ghosh) pic.twitter.com/nSCugJmzov— The Indian Express (@IndianExpress) February 28, 2021
In the garb of the Hindu God lies a message that has been largely ignored by political events in India. It is the story of a celebration that has failed to grasp its personal voter-base and ultimately, was made to pay the value for it.
It is not any secret that the BJP’s rise in West Bengal has been fueled by the shift within the allegiance of voters who had for generations chosen the hammer and sickle image on election day. The saffron occasion grew to become a power within the state driving largely on the feelings of disgruntled voters who had been disillusioned by the Left entrance.
The cause for this was apparent. The Left Front had failed spectacularly in addressing the considerations of Bengali Hindus and in the end, misplaced their favour. While the leaders of the entrance postured themselves as uber-secular, their energy derived from the plenty whose values differed extensively.
Political entities, after a protracted interval in energy, usually come to consider that they’ve the freedom to conduct themselves in a fashion they deem match with out struggling any opposed penalties however sadly sufficient, they’re at all times pressured to reckon with actuality quickly sufficient. Actions do have penalties.
For occasion, distinguished CPI(M) chief Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya participated in a ‘Beef festival’ in 2015. The occasion was organised in Kolkata to protest the meat ban in some states. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Bhattacharya was the communist candidate from Jadavpur. CPI(M)’s vote-share dropped by 15.04% whereas the BJP managed to extend its personal by 15.15%. TMC’s Mimi Chakraborty received the seat with practically 48% of the votes.
In Tripura, which had been one of many final remaining bastions of the CPI(M), the BJP started its marketing campaign for the Assembly Elections 2018 by reminding voters that the occasion had chosen to assist the scholars of JNU who had made extraordinarily disgusting remarks in the direction of Maa Durga.
While the marketing campaign diverged in the direction of improvement and different native points quickly sufficient however this journalist was witness to the truth that the occasions of JNU performed a distinguished half within the BJP’s marketing campaign no less than in the course of the preliminary phases. It is unclear the extent to which it performed a job in BJP’s victory in Tripura but it surely can’t be denied that it did play a component.
For a celebration that retains harping concerning the BJP not understanding Bengali tradition, the CPI(M) doesn’t perceive Bengali tradition exterior the Leftist echo-chambers of Kolkata both. The common Bengali Hindu is not going to take kindly to beef-eating or assist the hooligans of JNU.
The man dressed as Shiva campaigning for the CPI(M) in Kolkata is a reminder of the occasion that the Communist occasion as soon as was. It was a celebration of Bengali Hindus who they took as a right. They got here to consider that the tradition of the elites in Kolkata was consultant of Bengali Hindu tradition as an entire. What they ignored was that there have been huge sections of the voters exterior of the leftist echo-chambers in Kolkata and that’s what the BJP capitalised in.
The trajectory of BJP’s rise is demonstrative of that reality. The BJP nurtured its power from nicely exterior Kolkata and now it’s nicely poised to breach the citadel itself, though it stays to be seen what number of seats it does finally win in Kolkata.
Nevertheless, the autumn of CPI(M) in West Bengal and the eventual rise of BJP is demonstrative of what occurs when political events take their voters as a right and must function a warning for everybody involved.
A decade after the Communist regime was ousted from energy, there is no such thing as a reasonable chance of victory for the Congress-Left alliance in West Bengal. They will play an essential function for sure, relying on the part of voters it manages to draw.
If the Left Front manages to regain even a small fraction of the voters it had misplaced to the BJP, then TMC’s odds of retaining energy will increase manifold. On the opposite hand, if the Left Front’s gambit with radical Islamic preacher Abbasuddin Siddiqui Peerzada succeeds, then Mamata Banerjee can kiss the Chief Minister’s workplace goodbye.
The future, nevertheless, appears to be like extraordinarily bleak for the Left Front. Politics in Bengal will stay polarized alongside non secular traces for the foreseeable future and below such circumstances, Muslim votes are more likely to consolidate below Mamata Banerjee than the CPI(M).
The Communists misplaced contact with their voter-base and now they’re staring down the barrel of obliteration. And therein lies a lesson for all political events. The man dressed as Shiva should think about the CPI(M) however his brethren have by and enormous shifted their allegiance in the direction of the BJP.