Suvendu Adhikari Thanks CPM for Vote Transfer as "Aage Ram, Pore Bam" Ghost Returns to Bengal
Adhikari defeated Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee by a margin of a little over 15,000 votes
New Delhi: The ghost of the 2021 Left mantra "Aage Ram, pore Bam" (First Ram, or the BJP, then the Left) seemed to have covertly resurfaced in West Bengal during the just-concluded Assembly elections. While the CPM denies any such understanding, whispers of a quiet, seat-specific drift of the Left votes towards the BJP, particularly in "weaker" constituencies, persisted.
The tacit shift became evident when Suvendu Adhikari, the Leader of the Opposition in the outgoing Bengal Assembly, publicly expressed gratitude to the CPM for "transferring" votes to the BJP in the high-stakes Bhowanipore constituency. The CPM, which reportedly had 14,000 dedicated votes in Bhowanipore, transferred 10,000 of them to the BJP.
"CPI(M) ka jo loose Hindu supporter hain, sabne mujhe vote diya. CPI(M) ka Bhowanipore mein 14,000 votes hain, jis se mujhe 10,000 votes transfer kar diya (The CPI(M)'s loose Hindu voters voted for me. Of the 14,000 votes, 10,000 were transferred)," Adhikari said, expressing his "gratitude" to the left party for the vote transfer.
Adhikari defeated Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee by a margin of a little over 15,000 votes.
The CPM-led Left Front, which contested 239 of the 294 seats, had an alliance with the Indian Secular Front (ISF) in about 30 seats. The party, which had drawn a blank in the 2021 elections, managed to win a solitary seat from the Domkal constituency in Murshidabad. The other seat was won by its ally in the Bhangar Assembly constituency.
In an official statement released after the results, the CPM felt that the BJP "benefitted" from "strong anti-incumbency against the corrupt TMC government", the BJP's "communal, divisive and vitriolic hate campaign", the "misuse of Central agencies, including the Election Commission" and the "special intensive revision (SIR) exercise". The party observed that "even in such a polarised situation, the Left could marginally improve its performance".
While the CPM workers refused to admit transferring votes to the BJP, some party workers seemed enthused by the TMC's defeat. "With Banerjee demolished, her entire votebank will shift to us," a CPM functionary said and predicted, "In 2029, the Left will win at least 35 seats from Bengal."
The CPM has long argued that the TMC was the principal "beneficiary" of Bengal's polarised politics. Recently a veteran CPM leader and former Siliguri mayor Ashok Bhattacharya spoke openly about transferring the Left vote to the BJP. He said that for years, the narrative of Left votes going to the BJP has plagued the CPM and hoped that this would not be the case this election.
While Adhikari openly talked about vote transfer in Bhowanipore, TMC cadre Biplab Banerjee claimed that the CPM also transferred votes to the BJP in Rajarhat Newtown, Amdanga and Madhyamgram constituencies, among others.
