Kolkata Civic Polls: What Explains the 'Resurgence' of the Left Front?

The Left Front has toppled the BJP for the second spot in terms of vote share.

KMC Polls: What Explains the 'Resurgence' of the Left Front

(Photo: PTI)

It comes as no surprise that the TMC has swept the 2021 Kolkata Municipal Corporation Polls as they are all set to win over 130 out of the 144 contested wards.

But what has come as a surprise to many is the performance of the Left Front in this election, claiming second place in at least 66 wards, winning two whereas the Bharatiya Janata Party is the runner-up at 47, having won three. The Congress meanwhile won two and came second in 16.

The Left Front has also toppled the BJP for the second spot in terms of vote share with the former taking 11.9 percent of the total votes polled while the BJP is at 9.2 percent The BJP which had won seven seats in the 2015 KMC polls, has only won three this time around. It seems to have ceded their ground to the Left which makes all set to be the principal opposition (albeit far behind the TMC) in the KMC.

The Left Front has come second in wards of many Boroughs including 1, 6 and 12 where they have come second in every ward of the borough.

While many would be quick to call it the ‘resurgence’ of the Left after their dismal performance in the 2021 Assembly polls, a look at the voting pattern in Kolkata would suggest that the Left always stood a better chance than the BJP. But it would also be naïve to ignore their ground presence, especially the work that their ‘Red Volunteers’ had done during the lockdown, while the BJP was getting its house in order.

Voting Pattern Over The Years in Kolkata

Kolkata has always been a TMC stronghold. Despite the BJP’s valiant effort up until the 2021 Assembly election, they couldn’t breach that fortress. The BJP had been gaining in the rural areas of Bengal, at the expense of the Left. Thus, the 2018 panchayat elections and the 2019 Lok Sabha elections saw the Left lose its seat share to the BJP.

In the Assembly elections however, Left candidates secured around 10-20 percent of the votes in Kolkata and its adjacent areas, but scored less than 5 percent in the rural areas. While the Left-backed Congress candidates couldn’t perform that well, the CPI(M) candidates did better in the urban areas. The Left’s gap with the BJP was much thinner in Kolkata than it was in North and South Bengal.

Another example of the Left bridging the gap can be seen in ward 128, in Behala. During the 2021 Assembly elections, the Left lost to TMC’s Partha Chatterjee by a margin of approximately 6000 votes, but this time around they lost to TMC only by approximately 1100 votes. In the Assembly elections, the BJP had come second in this ward, but this time they are third.

So how did the Left Front bridge the vote share gap?

The Left’s Strong Ground Presence Post Assembly Elections

In simple words, the Left’s vote bank made a ‘ghar wapsi’ during the KMC polls. They didn’t gain any new voters, but instead, managed to recover what the BJP had taken from them.

The biggest factor behind this recovery is their army of ‘Red Volunteers’, who were very active since the Assembly elections concluded. This was at the peak of the second wave.

Anyone who has been in Bengal, especially Kolkata during the peak of the second wave can attest to the fact that Red Volunteers were available for help 24x7, going door-to-door arranging for food, medical supplies, Oxygen cylinders, hospital beds and more.

Young adults who were the core of the ‘Red Volunteers’ worked selflessly to help people in need, and that helped build a perception of the people towards the Left.

The left had been nominating fresh young faces since the 2021 Assembly elections, but what seemed to have worked for this time was that the ‘Red Volunteers’ who were nominated for the KMC polls, had already made an impact in their respective neighbourhoods.

While none of the ‘Red Volunteers’ managed to win, they did attract a significant chunk of votes. Veteran leaders Nandita Roy and Madhuchanda Deb won the two LF seats from wards 103 and 92 respectively.

However, they too have ceded some significant areas to the TMC, namely ward 98, which they had been winning for the past 36 years.

While the Left has made some gains in Kolkata, it may be too premature to see this is the beginning of a state-wide revival.

BJP Lost the Plot

The second major factor that helped the Left is the BJP having suddenly lost all their momentum post the 2021 Assembly elections.

The saffron brigade saw a series of defections to the Trinamool shortly after their Assembly election loss. Most of the leaders who they had inducted from the TMC, went on a ‘ghar wapsi’ spree. This coupled with several instances of turmoil within the party made the situation worse for the BJP in Bengal.

The state leadership too changed hands during this time, and party insiders said that the central leadership was reluctant to support the Bengal wing post the 2021 Assembly elections.

Their cadre had lost faith, and the leadership didn’t do enough to make it up to them. One can even argue that enough wasn’t done by the leadership when their cadre were allegedly being attacked by rivals.

During the run up to the KMC polls, while other parties had started campaigning weeks in advance, BJP leaders were protesting in Singur. They campaigned in Kolkata seriously only in the last few days before the elections.

Veterans Meenadevi Purohit, Vijay Ojha and Sajal Ghosh won three seats for the BJP, but experts have argued that they have won it solely due to individual effort and not because of the party name.

With other civic polls around the corner, all eyes will now be on the Left, beggin the question - will they be able to get their rural vote bank back from the BJP too? If they can do that, then we can successfully call this a 'resurgence' and not a stroke of bad luck for the BJP.