The CPI (M) in West Bengal has made an offer to the state Congress for seat sharing in the coming West Bengal Assembly elections. The ball is in the court of the state Congress. But the West Bengal CPI (M) policy is a divorce from the political line of the party leadership at the centre, as Prakash Karat said and the present General Secretary Sitaram Yechuri has reaffirmed. He suggests that the CPI (M) central leadership is not very interested in the West Bengal assembly elections. If there is no tie-up between the CPI (M) and the Congress in the State, the coming poll will be a non-event for the CPI (M). The party’s central leadership is against flexibility and pragmatism which characterised the West Bengal CPI (M) under Jyoti Basu. In 1996, it seemed that Basu could be Prime Minister leading the United Front Government (UF). But the CPI (M) had not even joined the alliance which Basu had called a “historic blunder”. That was the only time when the CPI (M) could be on the political map at the centre.
Later the CPI (M) gave support from outside to the UPA government and had a major say in drafting the common economic programme. But Karat decided to withdraw support from the centre on a not very pressing issue like Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s proposed agreement with the US for nuclear energy. In 2009, the UPA romped in again but the CPI (M) was all but wiped out. The breakdown in UPA-Left relations helped the Trinamul party to sweep the assembly elections in 2011. Karat is no longer head of the CPI (M) but his dogma still seems decisive. An alliance between his party and the Congress in the West Bengal assembly elections seems up in the air.
