WB polls: No support for CPI (ML) in Naxalbari

India may be worried with the growing base of Naxalites across the country. But, in Naxalbari, the birth place of the ultra-radical communist militancy, the spirit of the revolution is dead.

Sitting on the muddy floor of the dilapidated office of the CPI (ML) at Hatighisa village in Naxalbari, three party leaders were seen huddled together on a lazy Saturday afternoon to chalk-out the campaign schedule for the assembly elections.

Members of the CPI(ML) stand by a campaign
vehicle at Naxalbari in West Bengal.

The revolutionaries looked totally demoralised as they did not know how to compete with the high-voltage campaign of the Congress and the BJP in Naxalbari. The toughest contest in the upcoming election here is likely to be between the Congress and the BJP candidates.

The revolutionary communist party has fielded only two candidates in the area, which was once the bastion of the Naxalites, where revolutionaries like Charu Mazumdar, Kanu Sanyal and Jangal Santhal initiated a violent uprising in 1967.

Charu Mazumdar had given ideological shape to the peasant movement, while Kanu Sanyal founded the CPI (ML), and the members were popularly known as Naxalites. The movement, which professed Mao Zedong's ideology, also had the patronage from Beijing.

But, after 44 years of the ultra-radical communist uprising, the spirit of radical communism is totally dead in Naxalbari. The two contestants - Dipu Haldar at Naxalbari and Ram Ganesh Baraik at Kharibari definitely do not have the money and muscle power to compete with the Congress and the BJP.

"For us, contesting election is not about winning, it is just to keep our ideology alive in Naxalbari," Halder said, adding that it was unfortunate that the CPI (ML) does not have supporters anymore in the birth place of Naxalism.

There has hardly been any development in the villages around Naxalbari. The poor villagers still struggle for survival.

The ruling CPM, in the meanwhile, has sought help from the Election Commission against the Maoists in East Midnapore's Nandigram.

In a written complaint to the Election Commission, senior CPM leader and party's central committee member Binoy Konar said: "In the name of shooting (film) activities, suspected Maoists are being harboured in East Midnapore's Nandigram, like it happened in 2007."

The party appealed to the poll panel to take immediate action against the "Trinamool Congress-backed hoodlums".

"We intimated the Election Commission several times but no action has been taken to stop deliberate attacks on the commoners and Left Front (LF) supporters in the district," the statement, issued by the CPM state headquarters on Saturday evening, said.

The CPM also claimed that Sk. Sufian and Sk. Khusnabi, who have several criminal cases pending against them, were openly campaigning with the Trinamool Congress MP Subhendu Adhikari in Nandigram assembly constituency.

"We are astonished to see Sk. Sufian and Sk. Khusnabi campaigning for the Trinamool in Nandigram. The duo went underground some days ago but surfaced just before the elections," it said.

The CPM leadership also alleged that the "Maoists are threatening innocent villagers".

Rubbishing the CPM's allegations, Subhendu's father and Union minister of state for rural development Sisir Adhikari said: "The CPM had falsely fabricated cases against the duo during the Nandigram land battle. They are not hardcore criminals. They have been implicated because of political reasons."

Asked about the "Maoist intrusion" in Nandigram, the veteran Trinamool leader said:

"The Maoists cannot enter East Midnapore. We will never allow them for the sake of peace and law and order situation in the district."

Call for boycott

The Maoists on Monday called for a boycott of assembly elections in all poll-bound states terming the exercise a "farce".

A statement issued by Abhay, Maoist Central Committee spokesman, in Kolkata said while the people are facing corruption, price rise, poverty, hunger, unemployment, loot of resources, displacement and destruction of ecology, parliamentary parties are engaged in a contest to capture power by hook or crook.

"They (political parties) are indiscriminately using money power, muscle power, identities like caste and religion and are vying with each other for votes.

Millions of rupees have been poured down the drain just to buy votes," the statement said.
India Today