WITH two phases over, campaign by the leaders, workers and supporters of CPI(M) is at its peak in West Bengal. The scorching sun and sweltering heat has not been able to act as a dampener to the combative spirit of the comrades. Every nook and cranny of every constituency is being visited by Left activists who have laid more stress on door-to door campaign and people-to-people contact. They are approaching every voter to listen to their woes and show their solidarity with their daily struggle for survival.

In reaching out to the toiling masses, Left activists are making every effort to touch their lives and hold their hands to reassure them of CPI(M)’s commitment to continue with the battle to make their day-to-day lives a little less arduous and onerous. Street corner meetings are being held in every neighbourhood where efforts are being made to address small gatherings of local people. Processions with a couple of dozens of people along with the Left Front candidate are traversing every corner of each constituency. The Left’s emphasis on personal contact has resulted in common people coming out in the open with their travails and tribulations that they encounter in their everyday life. It has also brought to light the misgovernance of both the state and the central government. Proliferating corruption of the local leaders of the ruling dispensation has led to myriad ineffable miseries in the lives of the toiling masses. They are exposing large gaps in the distribution of benefits of the government schemes, declared by the supremos of the ruling dispensation both at the centre and in the state.  Competitive communalism expounded and practiced by the BJP and the TMC has led to the creation of cavernous fissures and an atmosphere of mistrust amongst communities. In the absence of gainful employment, people are being compelled to either live a life of abject poverty or are being constrained to leave their homestead and set sail for unknown territory. The effort of the Left workers and leaders to reach out to the downtrodden and the disadvantaged has given them the confidence to open their hearts and talk about their daily drudgeries.

The campaign, besides being in the real world, is being carried out in full throttle in the social media platform. Unique campaign material has been prepared by the social media team and which is being widely circulated on Twitter, Whatsapp and Facebook. Memes, comic strips, posters, audio-visual clips prepared by the state social media team have created waves in social media. Much of the Left campaign in the social media is spontaneous.

The Left’s campaign for unity resonates in the ethnically tempestuous northern most tip of the state. Sitaram Yechury was at Chawk Bazar in Darjeeling on April 13 to attend a rally in support of the Left Front nominated CPI(M) candidate Saman Pathak, a leader of the tea garden workers. The rally was mostly attended by people typically belonging to the working class and tea plantation workers from the various tea estates dotting the hills. The slogan of voting for Hasua Mardi Bartalo (hammer, sickle and star) reverberated through the rally ground. Though CPI(M) posters could be seen everywhere from Ghoom Bustee to Gurung Bustee it would be wrong to say that Darjeeling was awashed with the red colour. But those attending the rally were aware that it was the red flag which was fighting to ensure minimum wage, gainful employment and unity amongst the people of the plains and the hills. The sloganeering of the workers of the Bijanbari tea estates, who arrived waving the red flag, could be heard from afar … Rato Jhanda Jhukbaina … the red flag shall never bow down. Women from Kurseong arrived at the rally ground singing and holding aloft the red flag.

Yechury interpreted the emotions and aspirations of the residents of the hills through his speech. He reminded the people that for the 15 years that Darjeeling had a BJP member of parliament, the local people got nothing. Instead they became victims of divisive politics. The Mamata Banerjee-led state government created even more divisions amongst the tribal people by forming 16 race-based boards. He hailed the people to restore the heritage of unity that prevailed in Darjeeling during the days of Ratanlal Brahman and Ananda Pathak. It is the duty of the people of this constituency, he said, to reinstate that glorious history by electing the CPI(M) candidate and setting an example before the whole country. Passers-by and those travelling by cars stopped on their trail to listen to Yechury who said that both Narendra Modi at the centre and Mamata Banerjee at the state have taken the common people for a ride by claiming to have generated jobs while statistics say that the rate of unemployment in the country has touched a four-decade high. He said that the problem of unemployment cannot be solved by forming race-based boards. It is only the CPI(M) which has talked about alternative policies to generate jobs in the hills. While the CPI(M) had recommended to the central government that, like the North-East states, Darjeeling too should be accorded special status so that 10 per cent of the central fund could directly reach the hills. This recommendation was not heeded to by the government at the centre. Yechury said that both the BJP and the TMC are using the people of Darjeeling to further their narrow interests while the workers of the tea gardens are living in wretched conditions and dying of hunger.

Later in the day while addressing a citizens’ forum, Sitaram Yechury said that the battle this time is not just to change a leader but to bring about a change in the overall policies to make them more pro-people.