Jobs to education, CPM raises bread-and-butter issues in comeback bid
Telegraph | 29 April 2026
Notes from the reporter’s trips to Ghatal in West Midnapore and Karandighi in North Dinajpur before the April 23 vote
If not the cruellest, it is certainly a quite hot and humid April afternoon in West Midnapore’s Ghatal.
This is an urban area and signs of the upcoming polls are visible in graffiti, the flutter of party flags and the occasional hoarding on Midnapore Road.
Into a more rural belt, the scene remains unchanged. Flags — green, red and saffron — sway in the gentle breeze.
Waiting for the heat to lose a bit of its intensity, Dibakar Aloo, a retired schoolteacher in his 70s, is getting ready to hit his evening campaign trail.
After distributing copies of the CPM mouthpiece Ganashakti early in the morning, he is now out to campaign for the party’s Ghatal candidate, Santi Nath Satick.
It’s 4pm and the lone ranger steps out of his modest house that has plaster peeling off in places. He emerges from a weather-beaten door with a cycle that has the CPM’s hammer-sickle-star flag tied to the handle and a loud hailer hanging from his shoulder.
Walking past a trader’s pile of green coconuts, Dibakar tells this correspondent: “I do a round of campaigning in the morning before it gets too hot for people to stay outside. I return home around 10.30am, read the newspaper and rest for some time after lunch.”
He doesn’t paddle but walks with the cycle on his side.
As he approaches Hossainpur village, his destination for the evening campaign, Dibakar does more than mere sloganeering.
“I do not simply appeal for votes for my party. I tell them why the Left should be brought back to power in Bengal. I tell them about the difference between the Trinamool government and Left Front governments helmed by Jyoti babu and Buddhadeb babu. The Left had made school education free. Under Mamata Banerjee, over 8,000 government schools have been closed. As a teacher, I understand how important schools are for rural children,” Dibakar says.
A few metres before he turns left for Hossainpur, he crosses paths with a Trinamool supporter. He mocks Dibakar’s effort for his party and tells the schoolteacher about the “Left’s misdeeds during its 34-year rule”.
Not one to take it lying down, Dibakar picks up his microphone and begins to rattle out the charges of corruption that the Mamata Banerjee government and Trinamool have been battling since 2011.
“People have seen through the bluster of the aunt and nephew. On May 4, you will realise that,” Dibakar tells the Trinamool supporter.
At Hossainpur, people appreciate Dibakar’s campaign. Unemployment and the closure of schools resonate with many of them.
Construction worker Alok Pandit has to travel to nearby cities for work. “It is 4.30pm and I should have been working and not talking to you. I am a mason, but don’t have regular work. The situation should change. As Dibakar babu says, if it requires a change of government, then let that happen,” Pandit, 45, says.
Homemaker Bela Das is arranging hay for her cows in her courtyard. She briefly stops her work to listen to Dibakar’s appeal.
“Doles are necessary, but that is not an end in itself. This is why the Mamata government must go. If the CPM wins, Lakshmir Bhandar and other schemes will continue, but the government will also ensure employment for the educated youths of the state,” Dibakar says over the megaphone.
The appeal seems to have struck a chord with Bela. “My daughter is a graduate. Lakshmir Bhandar is fine for me, but for my daughter, it cannot be an alternative to a good job,” she says.
What Bela says is what youths aspiring for jobs feel too.
This is among the many issues the Left has been raising in its campaign.
“Elections give us the opportunity to send a message to political parties about what we need. We want jobs, and I hope this poll will send that message,” says contract worker Jayanta Bordoloi of Rajtala Rajnagar. He complains about the uncertainties and low wages of his job.
A few metres away, sweet shop owner Shyamal Ghosh is getting ready for evening business.
“Dibakar babu is right when he says chhoto phhul (TMC) and boro phhul (BJP) are fooling us. Under Narendra Modi, prices of LPG cylinders, petrol and fertilisers have skyrocketed, but the BJP only talks about non-issues like mandir-masjid. Even Mamata is busy spending government money on temples. These things must stop, and change is the only way to do that,” Shyamal says.
Every day, what a foot soldier like Dibakar does in village after village, CPM leaders like state secretary Md Salim do it before a larger audience — set the political narrative of the Left as an alternative to the TMC and the BJP.
But Ghatal’s lone ranger is just one side of the CPM’s coin in this election. Around 408km away at Karandighi in North Dinajpur, the sight of big crowds is driving the Left’s narrative of a turnaround.
Businessman and philanthropist Md Sahabuddin, 63, is the CPM’s Karandighi candidate. While Dibakar’s campaign is wrapped in dedication and love for the party, Sahabuddin’s is a show of extravagance as he surveys a crowd of thousands of supporters in at least 500 cars who have come to express solidarity with him as he files his nomination papers.
The toll plaza on National Highway 12, which connects Calcutta to Siliguri, is blocked as thousands accompany Sahabuddin.
“Even I was surprised when I got the news that the highway was clogged with cars that had CPM party flags flying on the bonnets. I got out of my car to witness it. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I did not arrange anything. It was out of sheer love for the party and me,” Sahabuddin says.
From Uttarpara, where Minakshi Mukherjee is the CPM candidate, to Ballygunge, the seat from where young research scholar Afreen Begum (Shilpi) is contesting, the Left’s campaign has grabbed eyeballs.
“The large turnouts are an indication of the TMC-BJP binary taking a hit. It is not mandir-masjid, people have realised that education, jobs and health are important issues. Domohona High Madrasa in my constituency has 4,500 students, but very few teachers. Where will our children go? Not everyone can afford private schools. The Left is raising these issues and the rural populace is responding,” Sahabuddin says.
From Dibakar in Ghatal to Sahabuddin in Karandighi, the landscape varies and so do the demographics of the two constituencies. But one thing remains constant — the talk of a Left revival and whether it can register its presence in the Assembly.
The Left in general and the CPM in particular have let a young crop of candidates and campaigners helm the polls. Their eye-catching rallies, smart canvassing pepped up with trendy songs, are getting traction on the streets and on social media.
But will all these translate into enough votes to win a few seats?
Salim is confident of a turnaround, but he is well aware that if that doesn’t happen, he will have to do a lot of answering to his comrades.