Without Cong.-Left tie-up, BJP would have come second in Bengal: Surjya Kanta Mishra

“The BJP and Trinamool have a clandestine understanding ... There are a dozen seats where the BJP transferred its vote to the Trinamool and vice-versa”

May 22, 2016 04:58 am | Updated September 12, 2016 07:43 pm IST

After a humiliating defeat in the West Bengal Assembly elections, while questions are being raised over the electoral understanding between the Congress and the Left,Surjya Kanta Mishra, State secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has defended the tie-up. Speaking toShiv Sahay Singh, Dr. Mishra, who lost from Narayangarh in Paschim Medinipur district by a margin of over 14,500 votes, said that had the tie-up of secular democratic forces not happened, the Bharatiya Janata Party would have emerged as the second most prominent force in the State. He said the performance of the parties in the electoral understanding had improved since the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, and unity of Left democratic and secular forces was the need of the hour.

Many are blaming the electoral understanding between the Left parties and the Congress for the debacle. Your comments.

It is not a question only about the Congress. As I have been saying, it was the coming together of Left, democratic and secular forces. Of course, the Congress is the biggest force in them other than the Left. I do not think the defeat is because of this.

You see, in the 2014 Lok Sabha results, we got a lead in 27 seats and the Congress got 29 seats. The performance of both the Congress and the Left has improved since despite the ongoing attacks unleashed on us.

If we could have gathered more momentum, results would have been better. … Since this [electoral understanding] happened only before the polls and there was lot of confusion, we called it an electoral understanding; people called it an alliance. Had it not happened, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would have been the second force in West Bengal. This would have been very dangerous. Both the BJP and the Trinamool suit each other. The most dangerous thing that is evident now is the understanding between the Trinamool and the BJP.

What has been the understanding between the BJP and the Trinamool?

There has been a clandestine understanding between the BJP and the Trinamool. If you look at the votes polled in the Bhawanipore seat where Trinamool chairperson [Mamata Banerjee] contested and the Kharagpur seat where BJP State president [Dilip Ghosh] got elected, it will be clear. At Bhawanipore, the BJP had got the highest votes in 2014, but this time, the Trinamool chairperson wins with a reduced margin. At Kharagpur, a Congress veteran and 10-time MLA is defeated by the BJP State president and Trinamool hardly gets any votes. There are a dozen seats where the BJP transferred its vote to the Trinamool and vice-versa.

The morale of party workers is low. What is the way to revive it?

Only way to lift the morale of party workers is to build up a movement. The situation indeed is challenging; it had been an extraordinary situation earlier.

I think the morale would have been further decimated had there been no broad understanding. The BJP would have been the second largest force; this has to be kept in mind.

There has been attack on those who supported the Opposition across the State — not a single district has been spared. At this moment, we cannot ask our supporters to resist but there will be protests. We will start fund collection for those who have been turned homeless. The leaders will also try out to reach out to supporters who want to us to be with them.

You have said defeat does not mean retreat. Can you elaborate?

What I want to say is that all the issues that we raised during the polls are relevant and valid. Nobody can deny that there have been farmer suicides in the State and agrarian distress persists. Nobody can deny that there have been starvation deaths in tea gardens and there have been scams in recruitment of teachers. There has been rising unemployment and the industrial scenario remains glum. There has been rampant corruption — from Saradha to Narada, and the new government has made it clear that they will not tackle these issues. During the election campaign, I had said that it would be difficult for any party to rule the State as it is leading towards bankruptcy. Unlike 2011, when we decided to give the government some time to do its work, we will hit the streets from day one on these issues and on the issue of restoring democracy.

Why was corruption not an issue in the elections? What about Trinamool’s claims of development?

We do not think that there has been development — it is mal-development. This government has focussed on individual benefit schemes and individual beneficiaries. This has also a corrupting influence on the people. However, there are takers for this kind of economy where syndicates operates and dole politics becomes the main issue. This is linked with lumpenisation of society and attack on democracy. Moreover, a movement should be started against the occurrence of anything like corruption. The Saradha scam is not visible and Naradha happened only a month before the polls.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.