The second part of the strategy was equally crucial. At the 2002 and 2005 West Bengal CPI(M) State Conferences, the key document — “Left Front Government and Our Tasks” — was discussed threadbare. The essence of the argument was that West Bengal, even under Left rule, could not remain isolated from the new economic framework unleashed by globalisation. But while that entailed a tactical reorientation in favour of private investment, the CPI(M) should not lose sight of its basic priorities and efforts to provide an alternative.

In practical terms, it meant that along with pro-privatisation initiatives, the state government must also pay greater attention to rural development. And the CPI(M) and its huge mass organisations would have to not only sustain but enhance their work among the Left’s traditional support base of industrial workers and peasantry — large sections of whom did not stand to benefit from the “Kolkata shining” glory.

Thus, wooing IT went hand in hand with unprecedented focus on primary education and preventive health care in the last five years. Thousands of women’s self-help groups (SHGs) were formed — one possible reason for the high turnout of women in this election that fuelled the CPI(M) sweep. And most important, CPI(M) cadres who famously work 365 days a year — election or no election — were entrusted to carry out “constant political education” to explain the apparent dichotomy between the state government’s “capitalist” policies and the party’s socialist objectives. The CPI(M)’s success in retaining seats in the industrial belt of Hooghly, Howrah, North and South 24 Parganas, and the Durgapur-Asansol belt — peopled by voters most affected by the decline of traditional industry — can be directly attributed to sustained party and CITU work in this area.

... contd.