While the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Trinamool Congress are part of the INDIA alliance for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls against the common rival Bharatiya Janata Party, the West Bengal unit of CPI(M) has started fielding candidates for the polls against its state rival TMC putting the alliance in a peculiar situation.
Contrary to other states with the members of the INDIA alliance formulating strategies to topple the Bharatiya Janata Party in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the West Bengal unit of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has been asked by their central committee to field candidate against their state rival Trinamool Congress.
According to reports, a senior CPI(M) leader told HT, “CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury told central committee members in Delhi after a three-day meeting that the ground reality in Bengal is quite different from other states. He said although isolating BJP is the sole purpose of the opposition alliance, the CPI(M) Bengal unit cannot turn into an ally of TMC, its principal adversary."
Reportedly, CPI(M) Bengal state secretary Md Salim said, “The binary is clear. BJP thinks it will get the anti-TMC votes. That cannot be allowed. Let Congress take its decision on Bengal. We have made ours.”
In 2011, The Trinamool Congress was an ally of the Congress and after they won the assembly polls and removed the ruling CPI(M) party, the national party walked out of the coalition government. It is speculated that Congress may apply a similar strategy this time after CPI(M) started fielding candidates.
The BJP faces a different challenge in Bengal compared to other states as they target of winning 35 seats out of the 42 in this poll.
A senior Congress leader told the media, "Going for an electoral alliance with TMC, against which we have contested all polls since the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, will only help BJP, defeating the core purpose of INDIA; all anti-TMC votes may land in the BJP’s kitty." The leader said that the national leadership has discussed this situation as well. Further, the leader added, "People opposed to TMC will not waste their votes on us if we become allies of the ruling party. Having been in power at the Centre since 2014, BJP may become the natural choice for the electorate,” the Congress leader added.
Bengal state Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, said, "The BJP is free to make its calculations on loss and gain. We are far away from any alliance as of now. What’s the point in speculating?" Chowdhury has often accused Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of having a reportedly, "close understanding" with the BJP.
Veteran TMC leader Saugata Roy claimed that the party does not require an ally to win the polls even though he is not against any allyship against the BJP, he said, "Irrespective of whether the INDIA alliance works out in Bengal or not, BJP will find it tough to retain more than seven to eight seats. The panchayat results showed the reality. Mamata alone is capable of winning all seats.”
An anonymous Bengal BJP leader told HT, “In the recent July 8 panchayat polls, TMC won around 57% of Bengal’s 73887 seats across all three tiers. BJP won almost twice as much gram panchayat seats won together by Left and Congress in 17 of Bengal’s 22 districts. The INDIA alliance will help us further.”
Meanwhile, BJP’s chief spokesperson in Bengal Samik Bhattacharya is confident that voters will support Prime Minister Narendra Modi even if TMC forms an alliance with Congress.
BJP increased its representation in the state from two in 2014 to 18 in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The TMC's vote share decreased from 34 to 22, but the Congress gained two seats while losing two. Since losing both seats, the CPI(M) no longer has a representative in West Bengal's Lok Sabha.
However, the BJP's total has decreased to 16. In 2021, Babul Supriyo joined the TMC by leaving his Lok Sabha seat, Shatrughan Sinha won his Asansol seat for the TMC in a byelection and MP Arjun Singh rejoined the TMC in 2022 without giving up his seat in the Lok Sabha.
In 2019, the BJP secured a 40 per cent vote share against TMC’s 43 per cent.