Bengal: Left-Congress Alliance Fights Corporate Media’s Binary Narrative

Kolkata: The Lok Sabha election campaign in West Bengal is witnessing pitched campaigns amid intense the heat wave that the state is witnessing. Bereft of resources by other political rivals, several Left candidates are braving the scorching sun, covering their constituencies by walking and meeting people en route or through roadshows. Here are some glimpses of the Left’s poll campaign in some ‘high impact’ parliamentary seats.

Murshidabad

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPI(M) has jumped into the poll battle in Murshidabad by fielding its secretary Mohd Salim against sitting MP Abu Taher Khan of the Trinamool Congress or TMC. Enthused by the last panchayat election results whereby a number of panchayat samiti, zilla parishad seats and gram panchayets were won by the Left-Congress alliance, it decide to field Salim, who is considered a mass leader.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has dim hopes of  any advancement in the Murshidabad seat, has fielded Gauri Shankar Ghosh. But the main fight is between Left-Congress candidate Salim and Khan of TMC.  

Salim’s electoral campaign so far has focused on the issues of river bank erosion and migrant labourers, and the vibes that he is getting from the people “is more than positive”, say his supporters.

In Domkal, where the CPI(M) wrested key panchayat seats from TMC, and in Raninagar and Jalangi, Salim is expected to garner about 60% of the polled votes in the seat, say analysts. They say bridging this margin might be difficult for Khan this year, as the MP is accused of doing nothing to improve the plight of beedi workers of the district (over a million beedi workers and their families reside in this district). Salim has reached out to beedi workers and has assured them that he has always pushed for minimum wages being paid to beedi workers when he was an MP and would pressure the government to continue with the medical hospitals for beedi workers.

Baharampur

In Baharampur, Congress leader and Leader of Congress in the 16th Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury is facing the elections as a sitting MP. His main rival from TMC is former cricketer Yusuf Pathan, who is from Gujarat.

Bahrampur considered a safe citadel for the Chowdhury in the Lok Sabha elections. During the last Assembly polls, however, TMC candidates had won. The BJP candidate is Nirmal Kumar Saha, who is also banking on the Assembly numbers and is conducting road shows.

But, Murshidabad is characterised by Choudhury’s signature ground campaign to connect with his voters. An atmosphere of unity amongst Congress and Left workers is visible in the area to make sure that Chowdhury romps home with a huge margin.

Dum Dum

With huge Left presence in the Assembly segments of Dum Dum Lok Sabha constituency, the area is seeing huge rallies every day where CPI(M) central committee member Sujan Chakraborty is the candidate. The people of this Lok Sabha segment are not new to terror tactics of the ruling party, and this year they want to vote smoothly on June 1, the polling day. Red flag marches are an everyday event in Dum Dum, where the sitting MP, TMC’s Saugata Roy, facing a tough fight. BJP’s candidate Shilbhadra Dutta is said to be attracting votes in the Assembly segment that he represents but not in other Assembly segments, Palash Das, a CPI(M) leader told NewsClick, claiming that BJP’s Ram Mandir campaign was “failing miserably” in this year's election.

Jadavpur

In Jadavpur Lok Sabha seat, former SFI state secretary Srijan Bhattacharya is giving a tough fight to TMC’s Sayani Ghosh, an actor fielded by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee this year.  The BJP campaign is being led by Anirban Ganguly, whose campaign presence seems quite dormant, at least when it comes wall writings splashed in the segment. Bhattacharya is getting crowd of youth, women, students and working class people in his rallies, Arindam Mukherjee, a CPI(M) leader said. Rana Sardar, a TMC block president and candidate, admitted the huge show of strength by the Left candidate but added that much would depend on the “equation” on polling day, hinting that the turnout of Left voters would be less and that TMC too would be “satisfied with BJP playing second fiddle”. 

Shrirampur  

Considered a TMC stronghold, the CPI(M) has fielded youth leader Dipshita Dhar, who has been making headlines almost every other day. Dhar has a noticeable presence social media with her enthusiasm and chit-chat with voters on display. Her opponent is TMC MP and lawyer Kalyan Banerjee, who is known for his haughty attitude. The BJP has fielded Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh worker Kabir Shankar Bose. However, in this election, too, the Ram Mandir campaign by BJP seems to be falling flat, with Dhar’s aggressive campaign leading to even Banerjee regularly attacking CPI(M) in his speeches.

Kolkata South  

In this another ‘Didi’ (Mamata Banerjee) stronghold, the Left candidate is Saira Shah Halim, who had in the last Balluygunge Assembly bypolls, had nearly turned the tables for the Left, decimating BJP to a poor third. She has been taking her campaign to the nooks and corner of her constituency, but was disallowed TMC supporters, aided by the state administration, to campaign in the area where the Chief Minister resides, at Harish Mukherjee Road in Kalighat.

The niece of acclaimed Hindi film actor Naseeruddin Shah, Halim, a scoail activitst, is the wife of Bengal’s ‘People’s Doctor’ Dr Fuad Halim. She is taking the poll battle to Didi’s turf, where TMC has fielded Calcutta Corporation chairperson Mala Roy, while BJP has fielded Debashree Choudhury.

Bashirhaat

This South Bengal Lok Sabha seat is in news for the Sandeshkhali episode, where TMC is facing opposition after the reports of sexual torture and land grab became big news recently.  With the arrest of prominent TMC leaders of Sandeshkhali by CBI and ED, it is expected that either CPI(M) or BJP stand to gain. 

The CPI(M) has fielded its Sandeshkhali leader and former MLA Nirapada Sardar. He was jailed recently by the Mamata Banerjee’s police for leading the Sandeshkhali movement. The BJP has fielded a newbie Rekha Patra, among the known faces of the Sandeshkhali agitation. TMC has fielded former MP Haji Nurul Islam.

Nirapada Sardar, an agricultural union leader, is quite popular amongst the working class, too. However, both TMC and BJP follow identity politics and with a sizeable minority vote in this segment, the field is open for both the warring parties.

With poll campaign spreading out to every nook and corner of the state, as in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the electronic media is being accused of being “wary” of Left politics and has been downplaying the Left-Congress alliance’s campaign in regular news.

The binary that is being constructed only consists of the two parties -- TMC and BJP. In fact, it is a study in contrast if one examines the way election campaign is being done by all the parties in the fray. The Left Front is standing out by conducting a conventional style of campaign that focuses on people-to-people contact, while BJP, TMC and Congress are mainly relying on paid campaigns in the media, especially the electronic media. 

The red flag marches or the issues raised by the Left-Congress alliance, such as secularism, ‘roti, kapda aur makan’ are completely being ignored by the electronic media, which often influences the decision-making process.

Also, identity-based social engineering is at the forefront of the campaign being unleashed by the regional electronic media, which is deliberately not mentioning the results of the last panchayat elections that showed the Left gaining with 22.5 % vote share, while BJP’s share declined to 22%.

Newsclick spoke with Prof Anjan Bera, Professor of Journalism and Mass Communications in Calcutta University, who said the poll campaign, as being shown in the state electronic media, was directed toward obliging corporate owners of the media world.

 “One can see, that with the electoral bonds, the BJP has amassed over 60% of corporate donations and TMC comes second, amassing over Rs 1,400 crore. It is the media serving one master and the other. Their media strategy is to divide the media time accordingly. For them, the Left and Congress are “fringe players”. CPI(M) has not taken a single pie of the electoral bonds. So, the binary suites the electronic media quite well and their class objective is also attained”.

Bera pointed out the “high-handedness” of the media toward Left forces, in that it had already given a “winning margin to the communal forces”.

“In West Bengal, the anti-Left media is focusing on either of the two parties. It can easily be shown that Mamata Banerjee was a part of the BJP-led NDA regime for 10 years. But this history is being deliberately omitted by the media,” he noted.

 Corruption, scams, riots, communal polarisation, secularism, constitutional values are all secondary issues for the media, especially TV channels, said Bera.

“The news of attacks on Left candidates' wall motifs being spoiled by TMC forces is not getting media attention. No one has been arrested, neither has the EC taken action on these acts of violence. Left to the media, BJP has come up as the “real opposition”, he added.

Sajal Ganguly, an advocate in Calcutta High Court, said: “In Bengal, what we are seeing is not paid news, but a “paid corporate-propelled media campaign” in support of BJP and TMC”.

Earlier, the Election Commission and Press Council used to take cognizance of all this, but this time, everybody is quiet, he added.