Roadmap for the Left

To rebuild its base and restore political credibility, it must renew its social contract at the grassroots — particularly through municipal corporations in India’s rapidly growing cities. Historically, the Left built its strength by mobilising peasants through land reforms and industrial workers through trade unions. However, India’s socio-political landscape has changed dramatically over the past three decades. In the 2020s, amid an expanding middle class, a youthful workforce and an already unfolding urban future, the Left must forge new social coalitions ~ and municipal politics offers the most viable route to do so. Urbanisation is a defining feature of 21st-century India.

- By TATHAGATA CHATTERJI

As the Communist Party of India marks its centenary ~ having been founded in December 1925 ~ the parliamentary Left in India confronts an existential crisis.

Barely two decades ago, it was a formidable force in national politics: propping up the first UPA government (2004-09) and governing three states ~ West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura.

Today, it has been pushed to the margins. The Left Front’s strength in the Lok Sabha has declined sharply, from 61 seats in 2009 to just eight in 2024. In West Bengal, where the Left won seven consecutive Assembly elections between 1977 and 2006, it failed to secure even a single seat in 2021. Even in Kerala ~ its last bastion ~ where the Left Democratic Front won an unprecedented second consecutive term in 2021, the December 2025 local body elections revealed significant setbacks and growing anti-incumbency. This decline should concern anyone invested in democratic pluralism.

The Left remains the only mainstream political force offering a sustained critique of neoliberal economic policies and their social consequences. Yet, the prospects for revival at the national or state level appear bleak. Contemporary electoral politics is increasingly shaped by populist leaders backed by immense money power, mobilising voters through emotive appeals centered on shrill nationalism and communal and caste identities. More recently, as seen in Maharashtra and Bihar, direct cash transfers and welfare handouts have reshaped voter behaviour, pushing questions of governance into the background. In this political landscape, the Left’s clearest path to renewed relevance lies in local governments.