Fielding agents in every booth will be difficult, acknowledges CPI(M) leadership

Kolkata: At a time when the dates of the Lok Sabha polls are likely to be announced anytime, CPI(M) leaders in Bengal have realised that fielding polling agents in every booth will be the toughest job in the 2019 Parliamentary elections.

In the recently concluded state committee meeting of the party, Suryakanta Misra has urged the leaders to ensure that all anti-BJP and anti-Trinamool Congress votes in Bengal are consolidated. The party's politburo member Biman Bose chaired the two-day state committee meeting that began on Thursday.

The leaders, preferring anonymity, said though the party was targeting to consolidate anti-BJP and anti-Trinamool votes, they have understood that it is not possible for the party to field polling agents in more than 30 percent seats.

There are around 77,000 polling booths in the state and five party workers are required per booth, which includes a polling agent and an election agent, their relievers and another worker who is kept as a standby.

Party leaders admitted that after the TMC came to power in 2011, there has been massive erosion in their cadre base. Many party workers did not renew their membership.

"Earlier, those who knew the areas were posted in the booths. But over the years, we have lost such cadres and it will be difficult for us to field agents in all the booths," a senior leader said.

The CPI(M) leadership is of the opinion that it will be difficult to form an electoral alliance with the Congress for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. The party had got two seats in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Mohammad Selim was elected from Raigunj and won by 1,634 votes, while Badrudduja Khan defeated the Congress candidate in Murshidabad and won by 18,453 votes.

The Congress will prefer to retain both the seats as Raigunj and Murshidabad are both strongholds of the party. Dipa Das Munshi could not win in 2014 as Trinamool Congress had fielded Sudhir Ranjan Das Munshi, brother of Priya Ranjan, who got 1.92 lakh votes.

"We are assessing our own strength and formally there has not been any discussion with the Pradesh Congress till date," said a leader of the party.