Buddhadev Bhattacharya.
The Left ruled West Bengal for about 34 years. Jyoti Basu was the Chief Minister of the state from 1977 to 2000 and Buddhadev Bhattacharya from 2000 to 2011. In 2011, Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee defeated the Left and formed the Trinamool Congress government there. Since leaving power in 2011, the Left party’s base in Bengal has been slowly slipping away. In the 2021 assembly elections, the Left parties that ruled Bengal for three decades did not win a single seat and the same trend continued in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. On Thursday, Buddhadeo Bhattacharya, the Chief Minister of Bengal during the Left era, died at the age of 80 after a prolonged illness.
Buddhadev Bhattacharya was the last Chief Minister of the Left parties in West Bengal. With the departure of Buddhadev Bhattacharya, a vacuum has been created not only in the politics of the Left but also in the politics of Bengal. Today, when ministers and leaders are in jail for corruption in West Bengal and TMC leaders are being accused of corruption. Buddhadev Bhattacharya was a leader who was never accused of corruption during or after his political career, nor did opposition parties ever point a finger at his integrity.
But the big question is what happened that the CPI(M) is going down in Bengal after the defeat of Buddhadev Bhattacharya in 2011. Buddhadev assumed power in the year 2000. The Left Front had its best performance in the 2006 assembly by winning 235 seats, but faced defeat in the year 2011. TMC under the leadership of Mamata Banerjee got 184 seats, Congress 42 seats and Left 40 seats.
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The losing streak of the Left began in 2011. Which continued in the 2016 and 2021 assembly elections and also in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Currently, the CPI(M) or the Left does not have a single seat in the Bengal Legislative Assembly and the Left has no representative from Bengal in the Lok Sabha, while in place of the Left, the BJP’s support base has grown in Bengal. Let’s know why Left parties are getting marginalized in Bengal politics-
Arrogance of leftist leaders
On the loss of the Left’s support base in Bengal, political analyst Partha Mukhopadhyay says that the Left won 235 seats in the 2006 assembly elections. The then CM Buddhadev Bhattacharya said in the assembly that we are 235 and they (TMC) are 30… This statement was from a then CM, but the Left has the arrogance to rule the state for three decades and not be defeated. The leaders became in between. The arrogance of the CPI(M) leaders was reflected in their work from the local to the zonal level. The top leaders of the Left were honest, but the Left leaders at the local level were full of corruption. Be it a household matter or a street or area matter, no matter can be resolved without the intervention of the CPI(M) party office.
Lack of young leaders in the party
After Jyoti Basu, Anil Biswas and Buddhadev Bhattacharya, the CPI(M) was completely lacking in young leaders. Senior CPI(M) leader Pramod Dasgupta groomed young leaders like Jyoti Basu, Anil Biswas, Saroj Mukherjee and Buddhadev Bhattacharya, be it Dinesh Majumdar or Buddhadev Bhattacharya, all of whom entered state politics from the CPI’s youth wing DVIAFI. had done M), but after Buddhadev there was no other young leader except Suryakant Mishra, Mohammad Salim, Manav Mukherjee, Gautam Dev. Be it Jyoti Basu or Buddhadev Bhattacharya, they did not prepare their successors and the CPI(M) and the Left parties are paying the price and now the youth under the leadership of Mohammad Salim are being brought forward, but it will take. The time of their emergence. On the other hand, in CPI(M), people come forward prepared by organization. Only the person of the organization goes to the top. For this reason it is not customary to take leaders from other parties like BJP or TMC. In such a situation, the party is struggling with a shortage of combative leaders.
Buddhadev stays away from politics
After the defeat in 2011, Buddhadev Bhattacharya almost quit politics. He was upset that the people of the state did not understand him. In the year 2011, Buddhadeo not only lost the election but was also mentally defeated. It is true that Buddhadev Bhattacharya became physically ill, but still he stayed away from politics. Mamata Banerjee’s party Trinamool Congress in the state was fully following the policies of the CPI(M). The party needed him at this time, but he drifted away from the party and this affected the party workers and the party workers continuously left the party and joined the TMC. Due to which the organization of the party was completely destroyed.
Broke the faith of minorities
Be it Buddhadev Bhattacharya’s advocacy of modern education in madrasas or the case of harboring terrorists in foreign madrasas. Buddhadev Bhattacharya’s intention was right, but his statement did not go down well with the minorities. In Bengal, the support of 27 per cent minorities is required to gain power. The minorities completely moved away from the Left and joined hands with Mamata Banerjee. Till date the Left party has not been able to win the hearts of the minorities and this is causing their continuous marginalization. A Muslim student, Rizwanur Rahman, was murdered during Buddhadev Bhattarachaya’s rule. The case of the Muslim youth’s unnatural death became so hot that Taslima Nasri had to leave Kolkata. Taslima Nasreen was seeking refuge in Kolkata from Bangladeshi extremists. He had to leave Kolkata due to fear of Muslim fanatics. Similarly, in Nandigram and Singur, Muslims did not trust the Left and joined Mamata Banerjee.
Attempts at industrial development failed
Different from the ideology of Jyoti Basu and the Left, Buddhadev Bhattacharya tried to set up a factory first in Nandigram and then in Singur. He believed that if there is industrial development in the state, employment opportunities will be created in the state. The youth will get jobs, but the way land was acquired for a chemical hub in Nandigram, firing, and the way Mamata Banerjee led an anti-land-acquisition movement over Tata’s Nano factory in Singur, has angered farmers in the state. I was elected in favor of Mamata and still that section of the state is upset with the CPI(M). Buddhadeva Bhattacharya tried his best, but failed to convince the people of the state.
He said that agriculture is our base and industry is the future.. He gave the slogan of do now, but the left workers who were brought up in the ideology of agitation and strike for a long time could not accept this slogan. of Buddhadeva and left him, however, the government has changed. Mamata Banerjee has been ruling the state for the last 12 years, but in terms of industrialization the state is the same as it was in the left era and the culture is the same as it was in the left era, but the ruler has changed not the mood, the color of the party flag has changed, not the culture. .
