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Journalism of Courage
For CPI(M) supporters in West Bengal, all eyes are on the Murshidabad Lok Sabha seat where the party’s state secretary Md Salim is up against sitting Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Abu Taher Khan, with the support of the Congress. Salim is a former MP who won from Raiganj in 2014 but lost the seat five years later.
Murshidabad used to be a bastion of the CPI(M), and even of the Congress before that. As campaigning winds down, Salim speaks to The Indian Express about the challenge from the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the BJP, why the alliance with the Indian Secular Front (ISF) did not materialise, and the Left’s poll agenda,
Excerpts:
The elections are yet to be held and you are talking about the past. Focus on the present and tell me what the current scenario is in the state. Forget candidates, just talk about voters.
After realising that both the Central and state governments have failed to address their aspirations, the youth are rallying behind the Left. This will have an impact on the outcome. If you have to, check the data of the 2023 panchayat elections, even with all the rigging. Don’t quote the results of the 2021 Assembly polls, when the bogey of NRC and CAA compelled voters to choose a side just as during the Lok Sabha elections of 2019, there was Balakot.
While the BJP kept talking about the UCC (Uniform Civil Code) and Ram Mandir etc throughout last year, we were talking about bread-and-butter issues and inflation. TMC is not addressing Bengal’s real problems. They are trying to make money through illegal arms and smuggling. That is why they are now isolated. Past data doesn’t capture this reality.
In the last two elections, a false binary was created about the fight in the state being between the TMC and the BJP. People now realise that the TMC will implement the RSS agenda. TMC was created by the RSS to wipe out the Marxists. People now have an alternative in the Left and the Congress, which they didn’t have earlier, and there will be a triangular fight.
Yes, that is why we allied. Rumours to the contrary are all deliberate attempts to stop the Opposition from uniting. See how Congress cadres are working to ensure the victory of Left candidates and CPI(M) activists working for Congress candidates? This time, it was not leaders who came together, but workers, voters, and common people.
Are you sure negotiations took place? When the INDIA bloc was created in Bengaluru … the ISF began saying that anyone connected with the INDIA bloc is unreliable, indicating that it had decided to chalk its own path … The question is not whether our discussions failed but of the fact that the ISF made a decision. It seems to believe it can carve out its own vote bank, which is neither anti-Left nor pro-Left. It is the BJP-TMC style of politics.
When was the INDIA bloc launched in Bengal? Did you hear from us? From the beginning, we said this was not an electoral alliance. We realised that to protect India’s unity in diversity, we had to acknowledge the divergent reality of each state and diversify our approach. Based on the existing reality, we’re fighting both the BJP and the TMC in the state.
No religious group is a permanent supporter of a political party. Mamata thought that in Bengal the support of the minorities for the TMC could be taken for granted. But if you travel from North Bengal to South Bengal, via Dinajpur, Malda and Murshidabad, you will find that Bengali-speaking Muslims have realised how Mamata hoodwinked them into believing she was fighting the BJP while she paved the way for the BJP. She has also deprived minorities of development while helping the RSS stigmatise the minorities, especially over CAA and NRC; when in Parliament, the TMC supported the BJP. To save herself and her nephew, she has aligned with the BJP.
We are talking about bread-and-butter issues. Mamata successfully looted Murshidabad, first via Suvendu Adhikari and then via Abhishek Banerjee (both Adhikari and Banerjee were party observers for Murshidabad district for extensive periods).
Her purpose is to deprive people of their rights. Not only have they looted votes, they have also looted money, jobs, 100-day MNREGA wages. All the roads, schools, and health centres in Murshidabad are in pathetic condition. Where did this money go? Why isn’t there industrialisation, road and river connectivity? People want to have their voices echoed in Parliament, which TMC MPs failed to do.
