During to the 2011 Assembly polls in West Bengal when the heavyweights of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) including former Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Industries Minister Nirupam Sen were defeated, Surjya Kanta Mishra, a medical doctor, was among few heavyweights of the Left, who managed to successfully counter the onslaughts of the Opposition.
He was one leader who stood against, what is often referred as ‘Trinamool-tornado’ over the last three years after the Left’s defeat, and managed to bring the party to some measure back on track.
The recent show of strength in Kolkata’s Brigade Parade Ground was a good example of a slightly more confident CPI (M) under soft-spoken Mishra.
More than three years after being elected as the leader of Left Front in the West Bengal Assembly, Dr Mishra, an MBBS by training, was assigned additional responsibility of leading the party in the State here on Friday.
The 65-year-old CPI(M) leader joined the party in 1973 and was appointed member of the Polit Bureau, the highest decision making body of the party in 2012.
Though his elevation has not come as a surprise to many, the appointment is certainly a break from tradition.
“From the 1970’s when Promod Dasgupta was CPI(M) State Secretary to Biman Basu till March 2015, only once a State Secretary (Saroj Mukherjee) won an election... Mishra is the second and thus a rarity,” said senior journalist and political commentator Rajat Roy.
Not only is Dr Mishra someone who has been consistently elected to the State Assembly since 1991, he has been at the helm on various departments such as Land and Land Reforms, Panchayat and Rural Development and Health and Family Welfare.
However, whether Dr Mishra elevation will revive the prospect of the CPI (M) in West Bengal will depend on the changes he can bring in the party.
The CPI (M) observers feel, that the partly was hardly left with a choice and perhaps a year before the Assembly Mishra was the party’s best bait.
