Lok Sabha Elections 2024: What’s left of the Left in Kolkata?

Wersquove worn a red Tshirt with our red spectacles on for fun to fit in with the hammer and sickle surrounding Leninrsquos statue at the Jadavpur New Market on the way to Kolkatarsquos Jadavpur University JU Among few institutes in India where Marx still gets discussed as strongly among students as the marks in their semester exams And the Left is far from a metaphorical red flagOnly that some of the campus buildings itself are coloured in white and blue of the TMC Which isnrsquot a coincidence TMCrsquos Mamta Banerjee government in Kolkata announced property tax exemption in 201415 if you painted your buildings in her party colours Statefunded JU perhaps took the more practical routeGraffiti on campus walls slamming partisanshipWe turn right into the campus to figure whatrsquos left of the Left When asked if JU is JNU of Kolkata locals promptly correct ldquoOh no JNU is the JU of Delhi The ideological battlelines drawn in student politics of JU are still between the Left and ultraLeft namely parties like AIDSO FUCI and SFI all of which bear various shades of communism from Stalinist Maoist to the more mainstreamrdquoItrsquos another matter that the state has still not greenlit a student union election on campus since 2019 The colours of the buildings donrsquot matter once yoursquore hit by graffities all over from ldquosmashing patriarchyrdquo ldquodown with partisanshiprdquo ldquofree Kurdsrdquo ldquoenvironmentalism without class struggle is gardeningrdquo invoking everywhere Kranti revolution of Che Guevera Bhagat Singh et alPeople from the outside might think of JUrsquos idealism as some sort of an elitist bubble But itrsquos really driven by students from oppressed classes voicing dissent Which is allowed In fact actively encouraged by teachers scholars and authorities ldquoThe space for debates is diminishing on other campuses Itrsquos about brainstorming rather than brainwashing and everybody is allowed their opinionrdquo says Srijan Bhattacharya the lsquoYoung Turkrsquo CPM candidate from Jadavpur whorsquos just returned from canvassing in the rural partsJadavpur is both the university and the constituency itrsquos on Mamata has been elected from here to the Lok Sabha in the past As has the doyen Somnath Chatterjee The turning point for the Left however was when the CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee lost to TMC from Jadavpur in the 2011 Assembly elections ending a 34year CPI M ruleGraffiti on the university wallsThe party has been on a terminal decline since Landing zero seats in the 2021 state elections As with Congress this Leftshaped hole has evidently been filled by the BJP in Bengal since ldquoThere is a silent makeover happening within the CPMrdquo says its candidate Saira Shah Halim from the neighbouring South Kolkata constituencyBy which she means ldquoWersquore looking at nominating young credible faces There is even a digital push in the campaign Something the Left had altogether stayed away fromLook at me even Irsquom making reelsrdquoSairarsquos posters across South Kolkata urge for a vote for CPM supported by the Congress in equal font sizemdashmaking her the face of INDIA bloc that Mamta had walked out of This CongressLeft bonhomie also bears irony in the context of JUTherersquos a popular story that we get Srijan to recall ldquoSnehansu Acharya an accomplished barrister also from a zamindar family was jailed by the Congress government for his communist affiliations in the 1950s The CM BC Roy asked him to hand over land for education He did and then returned to jail This is where JU presently standsrdquoStudents at the canteen prefer not to be quoted on their politics in the press One of them choosing anonymity because he plans to sit for the civil services exam says ldquoItrsquos not important to be identified as Left Some do Some donrsquot The point is to voice and deliver Nobody is apolitical hererdquoThere is visible support for young Srijan once a popular student leader at JU when you ask around in the food stalls outside the campusGraffiti on a shutter lsquosmashing patriarchyrsquoCampaigning for a month with another month to gomdashJadavpur polls on June 1mdashSrijan is placed opposite young Saayoni Ghosh a former actor with the TMC and BJPrsquos thinktank ideologue Anirban Ganguly whorsquos also written a book on Narendra ModiSaira in South Kolkata is up against two sitting MPsmdashthe incumbent Mala Roy from TMC and BJPrsquos Debasree Chaudhuri a former minister whorsquos been brought over from Raiganj constituencySaira says ldquoThe issue here is of corruption Both BJP and TMC got exposed with electoral bonds while CPM still works on fees from party members Look at the scams exposed during the TMCmdashteacher recruitment landgrabhelliprdquoShe adds ldquoIn the 2022 bypolls I beat the BJP candidate while I lost to BJPrsquos Babul Supriyo from the Ballygunge Assembly seatrdquo Securing a respectable second position would still be a success of some sort for the Left