CPI-M leaders from Bengal to join poll campaign in Bihar
The Statesman | 25 October 2025The CPI-M politburo has decided to deploy its senior leaders, including those from West Bengal, to campaign extensively in Bihar, focusing on the issue of unemployment.
According to party sources, CPI-M politburo member and West Bengal state secretary Mohammad Salim will campaign in Bihar for four days. “We will campaign as per the schedule set by the Bihar leadership,” Salim said. “If the state committee of CPI-M in Bihar seeks additional support, other leaders from West Bengal will also be sent for campaigning,” he added. In the 2020 Bihar Assembly elections, the CPI-M contested four seats and won two. Both sitting MLAs – Satyendra Yadav and Ajay Kumar – are contesting again this time. The CPI-M is contesting four seats as part of the INDIA bloc, which comprises the RJD, Congress, and Left parties. The CPI(ML) Liberation, the largest Left constituent in Bihar, is contesting 20 seats, while the CPI-M and CPI are contesting a smaller number as part of the seat-sharing arrangement.
In a video statement, CPI-M national general secretary M A Baby said unemployment has become a key issue in the Bihar polls. “Like the rest of the country, Bihar is facing a severe unemployment crisis. Lakhs of young men and women are struggling to find jobs. The Mahagathbandhan, led by the RJD and supported by Left and secular democratic forces, is contesting this election on the demand for employment,” he said. Mr Baby expressed confidence that the people of Bihar would vote for the alliance and that “the BJP’s defeat will start from Bihar.”
Meanwhile, leaders of the Congress are also active in the state. Former Berhampore MP and AICC member, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, one of the party’s three senior observers for the Bihar polls, is frequently visiting Patna. Malda South MP Isha Khan Choudhury has been appointed as a district observer, while Kolkata councillor Santosh Pathak, who has family roots in Bihar’s Buxar district, is already campaigning there. The Bihar Assembly polls have become one of the most high-profile political battles in the country. Parties across the spectrum are dispatching their senior leaders to the state.
While the BJP’s top national figures, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah, have already started campaigning, it is still unclear whether any senior BJP leaders from Bengal – such as state president Shamik Bhattacharya or opposition leader Suvendu Adhikari – will be sent to Bihar. The CPI(ML) Liberation, the largest Left constituent in Bihar, is contesting 20 seats in the upcoming Assembly elections. The party’s general secretary, Dipankar Bhattacharya, has been camping in Bihar to oversee the campaign.
Members of the Liberation’s student and youth fronts from West Bengal have also joined the election drive. According to Partha Ghosh, a member of the party’s central committee, “Our state committee member, Nilashis Basu, is currently in Bihar. Since the state conference in West Bengal is scheduled soon, senior leaders from here may not be able to travel this time.”
