No Left and Congress MLA in Bengal assembly for the first time

In the battle between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Trinamool Congress (TMC) the CPI (M), the other Left parties as well as the Congress trailed far behind the main contenders till Sunday evening.

The trend at 8 pm suggested that for the first time the Bengal assembly might have no Left and Congress MLA among its members. This was in sharp contrast to the CPI (M)’s victory in Kerala.

In Bengal, where the CPI (M) was an ally of the Congress and the Indian Secular Front, a new platform launched by Muslim cleric Abbasuddin Siddiqui, contested the polls as part of the Samyukta Front (united front).

Prominent losers among Left candidates included Jawaharlal Nehru University’s Left students’ union president Aishe Ghosh at Jamuria in West Burdwan district. She contested the seat on a CPI (M) ticket.

At Raidighi in South 24 Parganas district, former minister and CPI (M) veteran Kanti Ganguly was far behind the TMC. Among other prominent CPI (M) candidates who were trailing were sitting MLA Sujan Chakraborty at Jadavpur in Kolkata’s southern outskirts, youth front leader Srijan Bhattacharya at Singur in Hooghly district and CPI (M) politburo member Md Salim at Chanditala in Hooghly district.

“The performance of the Samyukta Morcha and the Left has been very disappointing. People’s urge to defeat the BJP led to a sharp polarization, squeezing out the Samyukta Morcha,” the CPI (M) politburo said in a statement from Delhi.

An outgoing CPI (M) legislator, Tanmay Bhattacharya from the Dumdum North seat in the outskirts of Kolkata, strongly criticised his party after his defeat.

“The leadership has to accept the responsibility for this defeat. The alliance with the ISF must be reviewed. Did people accept it? Our top leaders cannot shy away. Those who impose decisions from the top must be accountable,” he said.

The situation was no better for the Congress.

In Malda and Murshidabad districts, which used to be Congress strongholds till a decade ago, the national party trailed the TMC in all the seats.

In Malda, which has Bengal’s second-largest Muslim population (51.27%), successors of iconic Congress leader and Union minister A B A Ghani Khan Choudhury appeared to be losing control.

At Sujapur, where 90% residents are Muslims, Khan Choudhury’s nephew Isha Khan Choudhury, the outgoing legislator, lost to TMC’s Abdul Gani.

Mausam Noor, Isha Khan Choudhury’s cousin and district TMC president campaigned for Gani. Although born in Sujapur, Gani grew up in Kolkata. “Mamata Banerjee put her faith in me. The Congress did nothing for the constituency,” said Gani.

In Murshidabad, where the Muslim population (66.28%) is the highest among all districts according to the 2011 census, the Congress was supposed to be the main contender of the ruling party. The BJP tried to make inroads by using Suvendu Adhikari. Murshidabad is the home turf of state Congress president and Lok Sabha member Adhir Chowdhury.

In Murshidabad, three-time Congress MLA Manoj Chakraborty was trailing at the Berhampore seat where he contested against the TMC’s Narugopal Mukherjee. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, TMC was ahead of the BJP in 18 of the 22 assembly segments in Murshidabad. Berhampore was one of the exceptions. Chakraborty is a close aide of Chowdhury.

In Murshidabad, Pradip Kumar Nandi, the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) candidate from Jangipur and Rezaul Haque, the Congress candidate from Samserganj died of Covid-19 earlier this month. Polls were to be held in these constituencies on Monday but the Election Commission rescheduled the date to May 16, two weeks after the results are announced on May 2.

In Hooghly district, veteran Congress leader and leader of the opposition in the outgoing assembly Abdul Mannan was trailing at Champdani. Mannan had won the seat four times since 1991.