PRAGOTI

There is no point to debate on this issue until one gets a clear picture how the CPI(M) decision to support the Congress led UPA Presidential candidate is going to benefit the party in reviving its fortunes in Bengal. So far, the CPI(M)'s official position has been a tactical blunder since it did not achieve its two objectives that was clear from the official position. Number 1 objective was not "lining up with Mamata Banerjee and the TMC in West Bengal" because that would have been "politically damaging and unacceptable" since "TMC is conducting a violent terror campaign against the CPI(M)" killing party activists and thus "to take the same position as the TMC will only harm the interests of the Left and the fight against the TMC in West Bengal." The second objective was "to utilize the conflicts and fissures within the ruling alliance between the bourgeois parties" and 'Abstention' would not have helped in this respect: http://www.cpim.org/content/current-presidential-election Now, after the TMC voted for the UPA Presidential candidate, the CPI(M) has clearly failed to achieve its above mentioned stated objectives. Moreover, is the CPI(M) not feeling guilty to line up with the TMC that are assaulting its party cadres?

Now, the official position also stated that after failing to put Dr. Kalam as a Presidential candidate, "the TMC is now left with the option of abstaining or reversing its position and supporting Pranab Mukherjee." So, the official position is marked with self-contradictions and comedy of errors since on the one hand it acknowledges that the TMC might support the UPA Presidential candidate but it still argues that the TMC would abstain from voting! Actually, there was no objective basis to think that the TMC would abstain in the Presidential elections and this entire tactical position of not abstaining or fielding another candidate by wide consultations with non-Congress and non-BJP parties was entirely based on the wishful thinking that the TMC would abstain! What a tragedy? Last time, when was the CPI(M) been so fooled?

Further, if there is a rift between the TMC and Congress and if the TMC breaks away from the UPA in the recent future as the reports suggest then it has nothing to do with the political tactics of the CPI(M). The tensions between the Congress and the TMC, both at the centre and in West Bengal were existing in the last eight months on a number of issues. Moreover, the TMC has an eye on the Congress mass base in West Bengal and thus such a rivalry is inevitable. However, the question is whether the CPI(M) is going to gain in such a situation. As things stand, the Left Front lost 9% of its own support base from 2006 to 2011 West Bengal Assembly elections with the CPI(M) alone losing 7.5% of its support in the same period. Since politics is dynamic and ever changing, it might also lose some more voters contrary to the opinion of some of its leaders in the TV channels that it would not lose further from what it got in 2011. However, the recent Municipal election results in June only suggests that the CPI(M) led Left Front has lost further ground and the TMC has made its entry even in North Bengal. Correspondingly, the TMC alone has grown up over 12% in terms of votes received in the period from 2006-2011. When the Congress is getting unpopular with economic distress and corruption, anybody who is even remotely being identified as close to the Congress would suffer losses in the forthcoming elections whether it is Panchayat in West Bengal or the next Lok Sabha elections. If the TMC wants to distance itself from Congress then it has clearly worked out such calculations. Time would only tell whether the CPI(M) decision to support the UPA candidate would help them to gain electorally in the forthcoming elections.