Over the past few weeks, Leader of Opposition in West Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari has created a buzz in the political circles of the State by his attempts to bring all Opposition parties on one platform against the ruling Trinamool Congress.
What has stood out in the Leader of Opposition’s call for “people’s mahajyot (grand alliance)” and “No vote to Trinamool” is Mr. Adhikari’s repeatedly reaching out to the Left parties. Earlier this week, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader showered praise on Left Front chairperson and Polit Bureau member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) Biman Bose. The BJP leader appreciated the frugal lifestyle of the veteran leader and said that such simplicity is missing in politics these days.
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“Those against the Trinamool Congress need to join the ‘mahajyot’ keeping their respective ideologies intact. There will be only two camps in the battle ahead, one Trinamool and one against the Trinamool,” the BJP leader said on March 24.
The Nandigram MLA has also stressed that all Opposition parties should ensure that there should be “no vote for Trinamool”. The 2021 Assembly polls in West Bengal saw several civil rights groups and farmers group giving the call of “No vote for BJP”, a move that severely affected the prospects of the saffron party.
Mr. Adhikari’s recent utterances come after the Sagardighi Assembly polls where Left Front supported Congress candidate trumped the Trinamool nominee in a constituency with 65% minority support base. While the BJP did put up a candidate at the by polls yet the “strategic support” of the party was acknowledged by none other than State Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury.
The Sagardighi bypoll provided the Opposition in West Bengal an example on how a united Opposition can defeat the Trinamool. State’s Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had described the alliance as an “immoral” alliance.
Following the bypolls early this week Mr. Adhikari has been emphasising on the need of a “people’s mahajyot” regularly and reaching out to Left parties. In fact, he was even seen defending the Left parties when Trinamool Congress leadership leveled allegations of corruption during the teacher’s recruitment in the Left Front regime.
Suvendu Adhikari is not the only leader of the BJP in West Bengal that has publicly asked Left parties to come on board in the fight against Trinamool. Prior to this, leaders like Bishnupur BJP MP Saumitra Khan and several other key leaders have extended an alove branch to the Left parties and urged them to join hands.
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The Left parties have rejected the proposal of the Leader of the Opposition without wasting any time. Responding to Mr. Adhikari’s proposal Biman Bose said that the Left parties will not join any programme with BJP–RSS combine. Mr. Bose said that Left parties had for the past several years been trying to bring all anti-BJP and anti-Trinamool forces together. Any understanding with BJP is an uncomfortable proposition for the Left parties, as ideologically both the parties are poles apart and on two edges of the political spectrum. The Left parties slogan in West Bengal has remained “BJP hatao desh bachao, Trinamool hatato rajya bachao (Remove BJP to save the country, defeat Trinamool to save Bengal”.)
The Trinamool Congress has been alleging that “Ram and Baam (Right and Left)” have joined forces against the ruling establishment since a long time. Political observers, however, feel that even if any formal electoral understanding between ‘Ram and Baam” may be a far fetched proposition, what Mr. Adhikari is trying to achieve by these remarks is tacit support of the Left supporters at local level before the panchayat polls.
