Will coming together of 3 communist parties in Bihar elections revive Left?

Oct 25, 2020

Patna: As the left politics in India completes 100 years this year since its genesis, during which the parties owing allegiance to the Marxist ideology saw many ups and downs, and have of late been losing ground fast, the coming together of three left parties in Bihar elections has brightened the chances of their revival in a state which was once the epicentre of these forces.

The communist parties are fighting on 29 seats (CPI(ML-19, CPI-6 and CPI(M)-4) in the the state as a part of the Grand alliance or the “Mahagatbandhan”. C.P. Jha, a senior journalist who is a close watcher of politics in the eastern Indian state, says that “this is the 1st time in the history of elections in Independent India that all 3 major parliamentary communist parties, CPI, CPI(M) and CPI(ML) have forged a pre-poll alliance with the centrist political parties. This according to him will make it the largest block as per the vote share. Though the third front which is coming up as an alliance of parties such as RSLP led by Upendra Kushwaha, the BSP, AIMIM and Devendra Yadav’s Samajwadi Janata Dal Democratic may bag some of the traditional votes of the Mahagatbandhan.

“The third front can be considered as the b-team of NDA, but it also has the capacity to backfire at them”, states Upendra Prasad Singh, a political scientist from JNU. He also states that the “Jan Gan Man” rally which was organized throughout Bihar, post Anti CAA protests by CPI leader Kanahiya Kumar, former president of JNUSU, will have a great impact on Bihar elections. These rallies, according to Mr. Singh, have revived and solidified the existing and dormant left cadres and sympathizers in each and every district of Bihar. This may be a game changer for the Left as well as the Mahagatbandhan if consolidated upon.

Out of the total 7.18 crore voters in Bihar, more than 50% ( 3.66 crore) are youth falling in the age-group of 18-39 youth. Issues such as migration due to lack of employment and educational infrastructure in Bihar are becoming the most important narrative this time, something which might become greater than the political narrative of “shushashan” of the ruling parrty which came as an antithesis to the 15-year-rule of RJD prior to their term.

Bihar elections are the first ones which will take place since the pandemic hit India.The pandemic has unveiled various kinds of fault lines in our society as well as the economy. The state of Bihar, which is no exception to this phenomenon, also saw the collapse of the state mechanism to bear the crisis. According to the data by the Observer Research Foundation (ORF), during the first two months of the lockdown, around a million people reverse migrated to Bihar, which is one of the highest numbers in India and the numbers might have increased in later days.

Another phenomenon which devastated the lives of the people further was Bihar floods during Pandemic. This year according to the figures from NDMC, 16 districts in the state were flooded impacting a population of more than 80 lakhs. May it be migrants, the floods, the citizenship laws or the failure of health care, the worse affected are the ones who are in the lower strata of the society economically. Thus the class dichotomy which the left politics claims as their grand narrative, becomes real and very much alive for the Bihar elections.

Moreover, at a time when youth related issues are dominanting politics, the need for youth leaders and politicians also becomes inevitable. The left has responded to the need, fielding several youth leaders in the Bihar elections. Manoj Manzil, Ranjit Ram, JNUSU leader Sandeep Saurav, Jitendra Paswan, and Ajit Kushware are some of the left candidates who are in their early or late 30s.

How the Left parties perform in Bihar polls is a major question in any discussion on the current elelctions in Bihar which was once one of the strongholds of Left forces in India and has produced stalwarts like Swami Shajanand Saraswati, Rahul Sankritayan, Jagannath Sarkar, B.K.Dutt and Chandrashekhar Singh amongst many.

It was over hundred years ago, on 17th April 1920, that the Communist party of India was founded in Tashkent in the backdrop of the second Congress of Communist International which called for the over throw of the international bourgeois. At that time CPI consisted of 7 members namely M.N.Roy, Evelyn Roy-Trent, Mohamad Shafiq and a few others. Five years later in 1925, many other autonomous communist organizations came together and founded a pan India organization under the same name which was proposed in Tashkent (CPI). This was the first organized attempt to represent the Marxist ideology in India.

Since then the left politics in India have witnessed many ups and downs. From one organization which worked underground and within the framework of the Congress party to coming up as one of the strongest forces in Indian politics times and again. With time and changing political scenario, the organization bifurcated into more than 50 models, working on different political lines and different political understandings on the question of methods of reorganizing the society. The Indian left has been internally divided on political lines.The left at present operate within the framework of parliamentary road to change

–India News Stream