West Bengal Elections: Meet Some Young Faces Among Left Front Candidates

Kolkata: From facing lathi-charge during the youth march held in Kolkata demanding jobs recently, to facing brutal attacks by members of RSS-backed Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad in Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University in January 2020, to – members of the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) and Students federation of India (SFI) have been in the forefront of various struggles.

Some of these young leaders, many of them women, are now entering mainstream politics as candidates of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in the ensuing West Bengal Elections. These include Aishe Ghosh, Dipshita Dhar, Srijan Bhattacharya, Debjoti Das, Minakshi Mukherjee, Pratikur Rahaman, Satarup Ghosh among others, who are contesting as Sanjukto Morcha (Left Front-Congress-Indian Secular Front)-supported candidates.

Here are some youthful faces put by the Left Front in the first two phases of the eight-phase polling in the state. 

Srijan Bhattacharya

SFI’s West Bengal committee state secretary Srijan Bhattacharya, 28, is in the fray from Singur Assembly seat. Originally from Silchar, he describes himself as a lyricist and keyboard player at music band, Ebong Koyekjon. The young leader has seen many upheavals in the past in Singur, the site of the erstwhile Tata Nano car factory, where vast tracts of land are now considered barren for industry as well as for agriculture.

In a social media post, Srijan has outlined his motto as “Krishi Amader Bhitti, Shilpo Amader Bhobisyot (agriculture is our foundation, industry is our future).

Shatarup Ghosh

The former joint secretary of SFI, Shatarup Ghosh, 35, is in the fray from Kasba Assembly segment. He did his schooling from South Point and graduation in economics from Ashutosh College in Kolkata. He is contesting Assembly polls for the third time, and was the youngest to contest in 2011 at the age of 25.

Minakshi Mukherjee

 DYFI state president Minakshi Mukherjee, 35, is a candidate from the hotspot of elections  -- Nandigram – where she is pitted as the Sanjukta Morcha candidate against chief minister Mamata Banerjee and her aide-turned-bete noire Suvendu Adhikari of BJP. Known for her sharp oratory, Mukherjee did her schooling from Jaladhi Kumari Devi Uchcha Balika Vidyalaya in Kulti in Chabalpur and her graduation from B. B. College, Asansol.

Sayandeep Mitra

Sayandeep Mitra, DYFI state secretary, was among the key organisers of the recent ‘Youth March’  to Nabanna (state secretariat) demanding jobs, which saw massibe lathicharge by the Kolkata Police, leading to over a 100 injured and one DYFI leader dead. Mitra, too, was injured. He is in the fray from Kamarhati Assembly segment which consists of a large number of jute workers.

Debajyoti Das

 Former SFI state secretary Debajyoti Das is in the fray from Khardaha Assembly segment in North 24 Parganas, from where the present MLA is finance minister Amit Mitra from Trinamool Congress. Das, considered a good orator, has led several SFI struggles as its secretary.

Pritha Tah

Pritha Tah, 28, the daughter of former youth leader and CPI(M) legislator from Burdwan, Pradip Tah, who was brutally killed allegedly by TMC memberrs, is in the electoral fray this time from Burdwan South Assembly segment, from where CPI(M) veteran Nirupam Sen used to be elected MLA. She is a state committee member of SFI.

Dipsita Dhar

The former JNUSU leader, who is all-India joint secretary of SFI, is in the fray from Bally in Howrah district. Dipsita, 27, a PhD scholar at Centre for Studies in Regional Development in JNU, graduated from Ashutosh College in Kolkata.

Aishe Ghosh

Aishe Ghosh, 26, the first sitting JNUSU president to contest Assembly elections, is in fray from Jamuria of Burdwan West district, which has a large number of coal workers. Ghosh was in the news in January last year when members of ABVP attacked JNU at night with lathis and rods. Ghosh was badly injured in the head but her fighting spirit made big news.

The other young names in the Left Front list, about 28 of them, include Monalisa Sinha from Sonarpur North, AISF leader Shuvam Banerjee from Sonarpur South, Saptarshi Deb (former minister Gautam Deb’s son) from Rajarhat Newtown, Pratikur Rahaman from Diamond Harbour among others.