'TMC melting down faster than ice': CPI(M) hopes to take over opposition space in Bengal

CPI(M) West Bengal general secretary Mohammed Salim took a shot at the Trinamool Congress, saying, they were "melting down faster than ice" in this summer heat and it is time for CPI(M) to take over the opposition space in BJP-ruled West Bengal.

"And now, since the Trinamool Congress is melting faster than ice in this heat, it is our task now not only theoretically but also practically to be the primary opposition to the BJP in West Bengal," Salim said.

Salim asserted that the Left parties, particularly the CPI(M), are already at the "forefront" of taking on their ideological opponents, the RSS and BJP, in the state.

"It is difficult but not impossible to retrieve the Left ecosystem in West Bengal and to be at the forefront of the people's struggles for their democratic and constitutional rights," he told PTI in an interview.

Salim claimed that not only his party but also the people of West Bengal are hopeful that the CPI(M)-led Left Front will take over the opposition space in the state from the Trinamool Congress.

"More than a decade-and-a-half of TMC's terror tactics, utilising police and goons, created a void where the TMC made conditions hospitable for the RSS to thrive in the hinterland," he said.

The CPI(M) has time and again accused the TMC and the BJP of creating a binary between them using religion in politics to keep the Left and other opposition parties at bay in West Bengal.

Maintaining that the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC is disintegrating following its electoral debacle in the recently held assembly elections, the CPI(M) leader said the Left parties will fill the opposition void.

TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee had almost single-handedly ousted the Left Front from West Bengal's seat of power after an uninterrupted 34-year rule, riding on anti-farmland acquisition agitations in Singur and Nandigram.

Ironically, industrialisation, infrastructure and job creation have been some of the key issues of the 2026 assembly election campaign of both the Left and the BJP, along with law and order, women's safety, 'syndicate raj' and extortion.

The CPI(M) leader said the Left parties and workers' unions have already taken up the issue of the displacement of hawkers, who have been evicted from several places since the BJP came to power in the state.

He accused the BJP of attacking the livelihoods of the poorest of the poor.

Salim said the CPI(M) will fight for issues like safety of the minorities and any impending danger to the culture of West Bengal and amity among the people.

The CPI(M)-led Left Front, which ruled West Bengal from 1977 to 2011, managed to overcome its electoral drought in the 2021 assembly polls this time around, winning one constituency.

The CPI(M) refuses to get bogged down by the fact that it polled just 4.45 per cent votes in the recently concluded assembly polls, according to the Election Commission data.

None of the other Left Front constituents could garner even one per cent of the vote share this election.

The CPI(M) won the Domkal constituency in Murshidabad district, while other constituents of the Left Front could not open their account in this election.

The Left Front secured a 39 per cent vote share in 2011, with the CPI(M) alone accounting for 30 per cent.

In the 2021 assembly elections, the CPI(M)'s vote share fell to just 4.73 per cent.

The Left Front, the Congress and the AISF contested the 2021 assembly polls under a seat-sharing arrangement.

The Left Front forged an alliance with the All India Secular Front (AISF) and the CPI(ML) Liberation in this election. The Congress, on the other hand, decided to go it alone in all the 294 constituencies in West Bengal.

While the Congress won two seats, AISF retained the Bhangar constituency in this election.

(with PTI inputs)