Left ‘out’ in Bengal, Congress swallows a ‘bitter pill’

Kolkata: The glimmer of hope for the Left-Front in Bengal in this Lok Sabha elections has apparently been extinguished with the CPI(M) failing to clinch any seat while the Congress had to swallow a bitter pill despite winning one seat as its three-time MP from Berhampore Parliamentary Constituency, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury failed to retain his prized seat.

The 2024 Lok Sabha elections in Bengal was anyway seen as a duel between the Trinamool Congress and the BJP but both the Left and the Congress had high hopes of bagging at least a few seats. However, once counting began the Left dropped out of the race much sooner than it expected even as some of the party members hoped to bag at least the Murshidabad and Dum Dum seats.

The CPI(M) has neither been able to open its account in 2019 Lok Sabha polls nor in the 2021 Assembly elections.

However, what may add insult to injury is that the CPI(M) had fielded many young and promising faces in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, a strategy it had adopted in the 2021 state elections.

In 2021, many said that it was perhaps too late when the Left fielded young faces but in 2024 polls, political analysts are of the opinion that Bengal may have drifted too far to again return to Marxist politics. The prospective seats where the Left had hoped to make inroads were Murshidabad, Serampore, Dum Dum, Jadavpur, among others. Meanwhile, for the Congress, it’s a bitter-sweet story. Even as its candidate Isha Khan Chowdhury managed to bag the Malda South seat with a vote lead of 128368 approximately, the party’s three-time MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury failed to retain his prized seat- Berhampore Lok Sabha constituency.

He was defeated by the greenhorn and former Indian cricketer Yusuf Pathan who was fielded by the TMC.

The ace cricketer defeated veteran Congress leader Adhir by 85,022 votes.