Old Base, New Test: CPI(M) Pins Hopes On Hammer And Sickle For Bengal Revival
The Left Front's nominees in the industrial zone of Bengal bear a clear message of turning back to its core support base.
Published : March 17, 2026 at 8:16 PM IST
|Updated : March 17, 2026 at 8:56 PM IST
By Soumen Banerjee
Durgapur: In Bengal’s election season, candidate lists are often more than mere announcements. They are political signals. The Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Front’s first list for 192 seats does exactly that, reaching back into its past to script a possible future. In the industrial belt of West Bengal, the message is clear: the Left is returning to its original constituency, the working class.
With the Assembly election schedule announced in Bengal, political parties have moved swiftly to declare candidates. Through its first list, the CPI(M) has sprung an early surprise. In Durgapur and the surrounding mining-industrial region, the Left Front has fielded trade union leaders across key constituencies, betting that labour politics can still resonate in a region where factories, mines and worker colonies once formed the backbone of its electoral dominance. The move reflects an attempt to revive the slogan of 'Red Resurgence' by reconnecting with workers and their families, a constituency that had historically propelled the Left to power.
The emphasis on social representation is not entirely new for the Left. During the 2021 Assembly elections, the CPI(M) had generated considerable buzz by fielding three young women candidates - Dipsita Dhar from Bally, Aishe Ghosh from Jamuria and Minakshi Mukherjee from the Nandigram seat. The trio was projected as emerging youth icons within the party, symbolising a generational shift. However, despite the attention they drew, none of them managed to secure electoral victories.
The Left Front's nominees for the four crucial Assembly segments in the industrial zone of Bengal bear a clear message of turning back to its core support base and winning back the already shifted mandate from the Reds to the Saffron. The CPI(M) nominees underlining the party’s labour-centric approach are Simanta Chatterjee, a former employee of the Durgapur Steel Plant and a CITU leader from Durgapur Purba; Prabhas Sain, a cooperative worker and known face of labour movements from Durgapur Paschim; Prabir Mondal alias Tufan, a prominent organiser in the mining belt from Pandabeswar; and Monimala Das, a woman CPI(M) worker associated with peasant movements and representing marginal agrarian communities from the Galsi seat. All four candidates are positioned as representatives of the working class, industrial labourers, miners and marginal farmers.
Describing his candidature from Durgapur Purba seat as a new beginning for workers' rights, CPI(M)'s Simanta Chatterjee said, “The party has entrusted me with a responsibility, and I will try to fulfil it. There are many issues faced by workers in the industrial belt. I will reach out to people focusing on employment, workers’ rights and development.”
Prabhas Sain, the CPI(M) candidate from Durgapur Paschim seat, echoed a similar sentiment. “I am grateful for the trust the party has shown in me. I have long worked on workers’ demands and people’s issues. If elected, I will intensify that struggle,” he said. Prabir Mondal, contesting from Pandabeswar seat, is known locally as an assertive labour leader who has led protests on mining-related issues and built a reputation for standing by workers’ families.
Monimala Das, CPI(M) candidate from Galsi, swears by farm labour rights and hopes to make a difference from the agrarian seat bordering the Purba Bardhaman district, considered to be the rice bowl of Bengal.
The Left’s reliance on labour leaders is not new. During its decades-long rule, leaders such as trade unionist Dilip Majumdar, former power minister Mrinal Banerjee, former Rajya Sabha MP Jiban Roy, and labour leaders Debabrata Banerjee and Biprendu Chakraborty had emerged from this very belt, riding on strong worker mobilisation. For decades, Durgapur, Asansol and the surrounding coalfields were synonymous with Left dominance. Trade unions were not just political instruments, but social institutions that mediated employment, welfare and even dispute resolution in workers’ lives.
That ecosystem, however, began to erode in the late 2000s. Industrial stagnation, closure of smaller units, contractualisation of labour and declining union influence weakened the Left’s grip. The political shift accelerated after 2011, when Mamata Banerjee and her Trinamool Congress (TMC) came to power, dislodging the 34-year-old Red rule in West Bengal.
The TMC gradually replaced the Left’s union networks with its own localised patronage structures. Welfare schemes, direct cash transfers and grassroots mobilisation helped it consolidate support among workers’ families even as formal labour politics receded.
In 2016, and especially in the 2021 Assembly elections, another force entered the equation. Capitalising on discontent among industrial workers, unemployed youth and migrant labourers, the BJP made significant inroads in the Asansol-Durgapur belt, turning it into a triangular contest.
The CPI(M)’s latest strategy suggests an attempt to reclaim lost ground by reviving class-based politics in a region where identity and welfare-driven narratives have dominated in recent years. There are, however, structural challenges. A fragmented workforce where permanent industrial jobs have declined, replaced by contract labour with weaker union links; changing migration patterns where a large section of workers now migrate seasonally, diluting local political engagement; and changing aspirations with younger voters, who are less connected to traditional trade union politics.
Yet, a latent nostalgia for the Left era remains among sections of older workers, particularly in areas where industrial decline has not been matched by adequate alternative employment.
By fielding candidates like Simanta Chattopadhyay, Prabhas Sain and Prabir Mondal, the Left is attempting to turn that nostalgia into political capital. The inclusion of Monimala Das also signals a bridging of labour and agrarian struggles, especially in semi-urban-rural constituencies like Galsi. Whether this strategy can translate into votes is uncertain. The industrial belt today is no longer a binary Left-versus-Congress or TMC space of the past. It is a complex battlefield where the TMC’s welfare politics and the BJP’s expansionist push have reshaped voter behaviour.
For the CPI(M), this is more than a candidate selection exercise. It is a return to its ideological roots. The question is whether those roots still run deep enough or not. In a rapidly changing political landscape, the CPI(M) is choosing to fall back on its foundational plank - class politics - hoping that in the smokestacks and mining pits of Durgapur and Pandabeswar, the Red flag can find resonance once again. In the fading echoes of factory sirens and the shifting realities of contract labour, the Left is placing a familiar wager that class, not welfare or identity, can still shape political memory. And perhaps, once again, political outcomes.
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