Roadmap for the Left

The Left must articulate a new idiom of urban politics centered on decentralisation, sub-national federalism, and urban citizenship. Civic governance in India is too often reduced to infrastructure provision, while deeper questions of rights, access and accountability are neglected.

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Urban challenges cannot be resolved through one-size-fits-all national schemes; decisions about who gets what, and on what terms, are inherently political and must be negotiated locally.

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.