CPI(M) Leader Calls on Activists to Focus on ‘People Connect’ in Bengal

Kolkata: In view of the post-poll communally polarised political scenario in West Bengal, the Communist Party of India (Marxist)’s state secretary Surjyakanta Mishra has appealed to its activists to focus on ‘people connect’, refrain from politics of what is being termed as ‘reclaiming party offices’, adding that the time had come to categorise the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as the ‘main enemy’ in the state and take measures to thwart its advance.

The party leader’s statement comes close on the heels of the Lok Sabha election results in which BJP won 17 seats in the state, diminishing the number of seats won by the ruling Trinamool Congress to 24, as well as the Left Front that failed to win any seat.

Appealing to all Left Front activists and democratic-minded people of Bengal, Mishra said: “This sudden tokenism of BJP, whereby they are trying to infatuate the people, professing their commitment to democracy, is a complete hoax,” adding that it was only a matter of time that the communal brigade would start attacking Left activists and ideology in West Bengal.

Mishra said though it was a fact that people were now getting “temporary respite from terror“ as the verdict had led to TMC “hooligans losing steam” in many places of the state , this opportunity should be utilised the by the Left activists and supporters to “reconnect with common people” which for the past seven years was facing difficulty due to the “persisting hooliganism of TMC history sheeters.”

The state secretary said the party’s main task should be to communicate with the rather than indulge in “tokenism like reclaiming of CPI(M) party offices”. He said contrary to reports in th section of the media, many party offices were being handed over to CPI(M) by the villagers in different parts of West Bengal, including those were “snatched by TMC hooligans in 2013”.

The loosening of the stranglehold of terror in the state after the poll debacle of the ruling TMC, has enthused a sizeable section of the rural populace, he said. Many evicted CPI(M) activists, who had been forced to migrate to nearby urban areas from their village homes, were contacted by the villagers and requested to return, said party sources, adding that it was the returnees who were urging irate villages not to evict TMC activists from their homes.

Interestingly, during the Lok Sabha election campaign, CPI(M) offices started functioning in many offices as people were vocal in their criticism of the “long tenure of terror since the past eight years after 2011”. Over 1,000 party offices and over 500 trade union offices were captured by TMC in the last eight years, party sources said.

Interestingly, the sudden spurt of CPI(M) party offices re-opening has spurred state Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh-BJP leaders and journalist-turned-BJP candidate Rantideb Sengupta to caution against this and appealing to those who sympathised with BJP in theses elections to not to give “ oxygen “ to CPI(M).