Where ‘Amby’ once rolled, CPI(M) centres campaign on unemployment to reclaim ground

The candidate of the CPI (M) at Uttarpara in Hooghly argues that industries have steadily shut shop during the TMC regime, leaving behind vacant land and shrinking job opportunities.

Uttarapara: The rusted and locked gates of Hindustan Motors in Uttarpara do not just mark the closure of a factory; they also tell the story of industrial decline in West Bengal. Within the gates was the birthplace of the iconic ‘Ambassador’, or ‘Amby’ and beyond them grew Hindmotor – a bustling and self-contained industrial township that slipped into a quieter and bleak present after the closure of the plant in 2014.

This silence echoes in the words of Minakshi Mukherjee as she walks through the neighbourhoods, meets people and chats with them, leads bike rallies and road shows and addresses street corner meetings.

The candidate of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) at Uttarpara in Hooghly argues that industries have steadily shut shop during the Trinamool Congress regime, leaving behind vacant land and shrinking job opportunities.

“Unless we can reuse the vacant land and set up new industries, we cannot revive the local economy and generate jobs for local youth,” says the 41-year-old firebrand leader. She accuses Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s party and government of attempting to sell off the vacant industrial land.

As the CPI(M), which led the Left Front government in West Bengal for 34 years, strives for a resurgence in what was one of its few bastions in the country, it is relying on the likes of Minakshi. The party fielded its young leaders in several constituencies across the state – Mayukh Biswas in Dum Dum, Dipsita Dhar in Dum Dum Uttar, Kalatan Dasgupta in Panihati, Sayan Banerjee in Maheshtala, Pranay Karji in Cooch Behar Uttar, and Afreen Begum in Ballygunge, among others.

The Special Intensive Revision of the electoral rolls in West Bengal triggered a high-pitched war of words between the ruling TMC and its principal rival, Bharatiya Janata Party, overshadowing other issues that generally dominate political discourse ahead of polls – like corruption, lack of employment opportunities, recruitment scams, closure of schools and irregularities in the healthcare sectors. But the CPI(M)’s ‘young turks’ – alongside the veterans like Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya in Jadavpur – are foregrounding the issues.

“Since the TMC came to power in 2011, 3822 government schools have been shut down across West Bengal, while about 22000 new liquor shops have been opened,” Minakshi, a postgraduate in political science from the University of Burdwan, says.

“In government hospitals, doctors have to wait for relatives of pregnant women to buy gloves from outside before helping them deliver, because the medical essentials are procured on paper, but not made available in healthcare centres.”

Minakshi and her comrades prepared a manifesto specifically for Uttarpara – a document, which, according to the CPI(M) candidate, was a result of her consultation with locals during more than 350 neighbourhood meetings the party had across the constituency. She promised to fight for reviving the sporting and cultural heritage of Uttarpara, in addition to setting up green corridors and the overhaul of civil infrastructure.

“She talks about us, our lives, our children’s future,” Shyamal Das, 55, who once worked as a security guard at the plant of Hindustan Motors, but now sells vegetables to eke out a living for himself and his five-member family. “She is well-mannered and down to earth. She must win,” his wife, Malati Das, says, waving back at the CPI(M) candidate as her road show passes through the market at Kanaipur in Uttarpara.

Minakshi, now a member of the CPI(M) central committee, faces Sirsanya – the son of Kalyan Bandopadhyay, a TMC member in the Lok Sabha – in the battle of ballots.

“The CPI(M) itself was responsible for the closure of Hindustan Motors. The Left Front is zero in the West Bengal assembly now, because its 34-year-long reign saw the closure of many industries, not only around Uttarpara, but also across the state,” alleges the ruling party’s candidate, reminding that the communists do not have a legislator in the outgoing assembly.

“The people of West Bengal have rejected the divisive agenda of the Bharatiya Janata Party. They have realised that the time has come to repose faith in the CPI(M) again,” says Minakshi, who also has the saffron party’s Dipanjan Chakraborty against her. Chakrabarty alleges that the TMC is financing the CPI(M)’s campaign in Uttarpara to split the votes against the ruling party.

His allegation is not new, though. The word ‘setting’ has made it to the political discourse in West Bengal long ago. No matter what it means in English, the word, in this state, means a “secret understanding”. So, the TMC alleges that the CPI(M) has a ‘setting’ with the BJP. The CPI(M) alleges that the TMC and the BJP have a ‘setting’. The BJP, too, alleges that the TMC and the CPI(M) were helping each other.  

Minakshi rose to prominence when the CPI(M) fielded her against Mamata and Suvendu Adhikari of the BJP in Nandigram during the 2021 state assembly elections. She lost, and Suvendu beat Mamata. The TMC, however, retained power, although the BJP emerged as the main Opposition, replacing the CPI(M), which could not win a single seat and got only 4.73% of the votes, down from 32 seats and 19.75% votes.

The CPI(M), however, sensed a whiff of a revival in the 2022 municipal elections and the 2023 panchayat elections as its vote share in some districts went up to 20% while a series of scams hit the popularity of the TMC. With Mohammed Salim, the CPI(M)’s state secretary since March 2022, initiating a process to end the gerontocracy in the party, several young leaders rose through the ranks in the past few years.

Minakshi, known for her next-door-girl demeanour, down-to-earth image, and fiery speeches, has emerged as the ‘captain’ for the young communists, many of whom join her on her campaign trail every day in Uttarpara. She was arrested and was allegedly tortured in jail after a protest by the CPI(M)’s youth wing against the murder of student activist Anis Khan in early 2022. She led a 3,000-km-long ‘Insaaf Yatra’ across West Bengal for 50 days in December 2023 and January 2024.

But her party polled only 5.7% votes and could not win a single seat from West Bengal in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The rout could not diminish the spirit of Minakshi and other young CPI(M) leaders, and they were seen on the frontline of the statewide protest against the rape and murder of a young doctor at the R G Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata in August 2024. They also took to the streets to protest against the alleged scams in the recruitment of teachers.

The CPI(M)-led Left Front has struck an alliance with the Indian Secular Front for the 2026 assembly elections.

“The BJP and the TMC attempted to mobilise votes along religious lines but failed,” says Salim, the CPI(M) state secretary, adding: “We are bringing to the fore people’s primary concerns, because livelihoods, economic security, education and health matter most for them, not religion.”

After 15 years on the margins, the CPI(M) is attempting a calibrated return – pairing a generational shift in leadership with a renewed focus on core socio-economic and governance issues – to test whether it can meaningfully disrupt the entrenched TMC-BJP binary in West Bengal. How far that effort translates into electoral gains will be known on May 4, the day of the verdict.