DH Interview | West Bengal Assembly Elections 2026: Describing Modi-Shah as outsiders damages Bengal's cultural heritage: Biman Bose

Even at 86, Bose has actively campaigned often on foot in Bengal’s hot and humid weather. Kalyan Ray catches up with the Left Front chairman in Kolkata.

Biman Bose, once part of the famous Buddha-Biman-Anil troika with Buddhadev Bhattacharaya and Anil Biswas, is the last old-school communist leader associated with the communist movement in India for seven decades. Even at 86, he has actively campaigned often on foot in Bengal’s hot and humid weather. Kalyan Ray catches up with the Left Front chairman in Kolkata. Excerpts:

Q: Do you think the Left Front will return to the West Bengal assembly in 2026? How many seats do you expect?

A: I can only say the CPM and the Left Front will not be in a great vacuum in the 18th Legislative Assembly. As far as numbers are concerned, I am not an astrologer like the TMC and BJP leaders who claim they will get a certain number of seats after the phase-I polls. I am a common man doing politics in a humble manner, I can’t predict any number.

Q: After ruling Bengal for 34 years, you witness a situation of having no Left MLA and no Left MPs from West Bengal. How do you see such a transition?

A: This was done with a calculated scheme. The plan was hatched by the RSS, not the TMC. They planned to remove the Left and communists in Bengal after the 1996 assembly election. The final call was taken in 1997 in a guest house near the Haryana border where they held a Chintan Baithak. They decided Congress was to be broken and TMC was to be formed. The name Trinamool Congress was also suggested by the Sangh Parivar. The party's symbol was also suggested by them. It was the machination of right-wingers here and abroad.

Q: In such a case, why is TMC contesting the BJP if the RSS was behind the TMC's formation in the first place?

A: Because unless they develop a binary politics, they cannot keep the Left and Communists outside the orbit. That is the philosophy.

Q: Do you think this is the most communally charged assembly poll in Bengal?

A: Both BJP and TMC are mixing religion and politics. Government has no religion. But still, government money is being utilised to build temples. How can that be done?

Q: Mamata Banerjee describes Narendra Modi and Amit Shah as outsiders and makes it an issue of outsiders versus Bengalees in this election – what are your views?

A: This sort of wording damages the cultural heritage of Bengal. From Kashmir to Kanyakumari, from Kutch to Kohima any person can go anywhere. We are first Indian, then Bengali, Tamil, Kannada, Malayali, or Lucknawi. Any Indian citizen can visit any part of India. Likewise, any politician from any part of the country can do politics in other parts of the country. Who is coming from outside? All are Indians.

Q: The Left Front lost power after ruling West Bengal for 34 years and TMC has been ruling for 15 years – what went wrong? What’s your assessment of TMC government?

A: After the 2011 election, TMC started saying how it would do development work because of the Rs 1,96,000 crore debt incurred by the Left Front government. These are bogus claims. The loan taken by the government is always calculated cumulatively. The amount of Rs 1,96,000 crore was the cumulative loan accumulated by various governments over the past 64 years. Now the loan amount has gone up to about Rs 7 lakh crore. If you subtract the earlier amount, it means over Rs five lakh crores of debt within 15 years.

Regarding the Left Front’s performance in 2011, there’s no point in doing a post-mortem now. But as long as the problems of farmers and labourers continue, the Left will be relevant to Indian politics.