RED SHOOTS RISING

CPI(M) hopes its fiery young candidates will usher in a left renaissance in West Bengal

- NILADRY SARKAR

Srijan Bhattacharya, the CPI(M)’s 31-year-old candidate in Jadavpur Lok Sabha constituency, is all fired up. “This will be the new left,” he says. “We will talk in today’s lingo, but we will not dilute our politics. The content remains the same, but the form is changing for good.”

Bollywood punchlines have been helping Bhattacharya connect with crowds at poll rallies. At a rally organised by the CPI(M)’s youth wing at Kolkata’s Brigade Parade Ground, he borrowed a line from Shah Rukh Khan’s Jawan. “Baap ko hath lagaane se pehle bete se bat kar (Talk to the son before touching the father),” he said, eliciting a thunderous response from the audience.

Bhattacharya is one of the eight candidates who are aged below 40 that the CPI(M) has fielded in West Bengal. Of the 30 candidates that the Left Front has fielded as INDIA bloc candidates in the state, 22 are from the CPI(M). Only four of them are above 60.

This appears to be a decisive shift from the party’s long tradition of favouring old hands in electoral politics. Perhaps, what held a mirror up to the party were the results of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and the 2021 assembly polls. On both occasions, the party had drawn a blank.

The CPI(M) had fielded a few young candidates in 2021, but none of them made a big impact. But, three years since, the young leaders have the ability and experience to make voters take notice of the left’s poll agenda.