Adding to its gains from the recent municipal elections, where it not only finished second in terms of the overall voteshare but also won the Taherpur municipality in Nadia district, the Left Front has regained its lost footing on Bengal’s political ground, to the extent that it can now realistically set sights on wresting a slice of the minority voteshare from the ruling Trinamool Congress.
Weakening the TMC’s hold on the minority vote bank since the 2011 Assembly elections, the CPM’s Ballygunge Assembly bypoll candidate, Saira Shah Halim, not only finished runner-up to winning TMC nominee Babul Supriyo but also fared well in the minority-dominated wards of the constituency. In an indication of the party making a fair impression on voters, especially the ones belonging to the minority community, in the prestigious Assembly seat which fell vacant following the demise of state minister Subrata Mukherjee last year, the CPM’s core voteshare has soared.
Left leaders, including its candidate, attributed the significant uptick in its vote haul on the relentless agitation on bread and butter issues as well as those such as the death of Muslim student leader Anis Khan.
Formerly with the CPM’s student’s wing SFI, Anis was found dead outside his home at Amta in Howrah district on the night of February 18.
A niece of actor Naseeruddin Shah and the daughter-in-law of former Bengal Assembly Speaker Hasim Abdul Halim, Saira is a social activist and a motivational speaker. Her husband and CPM leader Fuad Halim unsuccessfully contested the Ballygunge Assembly polls in 2011. She was one of prominent faces of the Left’s movement against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and also dabbles in social work. As an activist, she has worked extensively in the illiterate and downtrodden section of the minority community in the Ballygunge and Park Circus areas.
His family alleged that four men, one of who was in police uniform, came looking for him on the night of the incident.
While the SIT, formed by the state government to probe the death, arrested two persons, a civic police volunteer and a homeguard, Anis’s family claimed they didn’t have faith in the state police and called for a CBI probe.
The Opposition, especially the Left, too, added to the chorus for a CBI probe, and even took out protests across the city to press for its demand.
The suspected arsoning of nine people at Bogtui village in Birbhum district, allegedly in retaliation to the murder of TMC panchayat leader Bhadu Sheikh, also raised questions on the role of the police and the brought the Opposition out on the streets again. With both the accused and the victims of Bogtui violence being Muslims, sources in the TMC said there are fears of a further corrosion of its minority voteshare in coming electoral battles.
According to a section of TMC leaders, the ruling party saw the Left wean away a significant chunk of its Muslim voteshare for the first time since 2011. A senior TMC leader said, “In 2021, the minority voters saw us as the only alternative to the BJP. Almost 90 per cent of Muslim voters, including some CPM members, voted for us. However, the Ballygunge bypoll has brought us to the realisation that our hold on the minority votebank has weakened. We have some thinking to do in this regard.”
The Left has now set its sights on sharpening and intensifying its protests against the TMC government around issues such as the Bogtui violence, Anis’s death and the alleged gangrape and murder of a minor girl in Nadia district, which has seen the Opposition railing against the Mamata regime on the issue of law and order.
The CPM, for starters, has planned to organise a rally to thank the voters of Ballygunge. “The TMC, BJP and even the Congress attacked our candidate in a manner which was unprecedented. They ran a misogynist campaign against our candidate. We failed to mobilise more people during the campaign. Had we done that, the outcome of this bypoll could well have been different,” said CPM’s West Bengal state secretary Md. Salim.
“There were some incidents in the Left Front regime because of which the CPI(M) minority voteshare weakened significantly. If our party and the government fails to win over the Muslim voters and if a similar incident (like Anis’s death and Bogtui) were to happen again, the implications for us could be serious,” the TMC leader said.
Adding to its gains from the recent municipal elections, where it not only finished second in terms of the overall voteshare but also won the Taherpur municipality in Nadia district, the Left Front has regained its lost footing on Bengal’s political ground, to the extent that it can now realistically set sights on wresting a slice of the minority voteshare from the ruling Trinamool Congress. Weakening the TMC’s hold on the minority vote bank since the 2011 Assembly elections, the CPM’s Ballygunge Assembly bypoll candidate, Saira Shah Halim, not only finished runner-up to winning TMC nominee Babul Supriyo but also fared well in the minority-dominated wards of the constituency. In an indication of the party making a fair impression on voters, especially the ones belonging to the minority community, in the prestigious Assembly seat which fell vacant following the demise of state minister Subrata Mukherjee last year, the CPM’s core voteshare has soared. Left leaders, including its candidate, attributed the significant uptick in its vote haul on the relentless agitation on bread and butter issues as well as those such as the death of Muslim student leader Anis Khan. Formerly with the CPM’s student’s wing SFI, Anis was found dead outside his home at Amta in Howrah district on the night of February 18. A niece of actor Naseeruddin Shah and the daughter-in-law of former Bengal Assembly Speaker Hasim Abdul Halim, Saira is a social activist and a motivational speaker. Her husband and CPM leader Fuad Halim unsuccessfully contested the Ballygunge Assembly polls in 2011. She was one of prominent faces of the Left’s movement against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and also dabbles in social work. As an activist, she has worked extensively in the illiterate and downtrodden section of the minority community in the Ballygunge and Park Circus areas. His family alleged that four men, one of who was in police uniform, came looking for him on the night of the incident. While the SIT, formed by the state government to probe the death, arrested two persons, a civic police volunteer and a homeguard, Anis’s family claimed they didn’t have faith in the state police and called for a CBI probe. The Opposition, especially the Left, too, added to the chorus for a CBI probe, and even took out protests across the city to press for its demand. The suspected arsoning of nine people at Bogtui village in Birbhum district, allegedly in retaliation to the murder of TMC panchayat leader Bhadu Sheikh, also raised questions on the role of the police and the brought the Opposition out on the streets again. With both the accused and the victims of Bogtui violence being Muslims, sources in the TMC said there are fears of a further corrosion of its minority voteshare in coming electoral battles. According to a section of TMC leaders, the ruling party saw the Left wean away a significant chunk of its Muslim voteshare for the first time since 2011. A senior TMC leader said, “In 2021, the minority voters saw us as the only alternative to the BJP. Almost 90 per cent of Muslim voters, including some CPM members, voted for us. However, the Ballygunge bypoll has brought us to the realisation that our hold on the minority votebank has weakened. We have some thinking to do in this regard.” The Left has now set its sights on sharpening and intensifying its protests against the TMC government around issues such as the Bogtui violence, Anis’s death and the alleged gangrape and murder of a minor girl in Nadia district, which has seen the Opposition railing against the Mamata regime on the issue of law and order. The CPM, for starters, has planned to organise a rally to thank the voters of Ballygunge. “The TMC, BJP and even the Congress attacked our candidate in a manner which was unprecedented. They ran a misogynist campaign against our candidate. We failed to mobilise more people during the campaign. Had we done that, the outcome of this bypoll could well have been different,” said CPM’s West Bengal state secretary Md. Salim. “There were some incidents in the Left Front regime because of which the CPI(M) minority voteshare weakened significantly. If our party and the government fails to win over the Muslim voters and if a similar incident (like Anis’s death and Bogtui) were to happen again, the implications for us could be serious,” the TMC leader said.