New Delhi: It is unusual for Ganashakti, the West Bengal mouthpiece of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), to lead with the pictures of a young Left leader — that, too, for two days in a row.
On 7 January, the day the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI), the CPI (M) youth wing, held a rally at Kolkata’s historic Brigade Parade Ground, the lead picture on the front page of Ganashakti featured Minakshi Mukherjee, the state secretary of the DYFI, inspecting the arrangements for the gathering.
A day after the ‘Insaaf (justice)’ rally, the publication carried an eight-column picture of Mukherjee delivering a speech at the event, which was attended by lakhs from across the state.
As Mukherjee took the stage at the rally, the excitement among Left workers reached a crescendo, forcing her to take a long pause.
“Laal salam, ladte eshechi toh (Red salute, we have come here to fight, haven’t we)?” she began, only to briefly halt again to let the crowd respond.
She then proceeded to remind people to leave the ground only after listening to the speech of CPI(M) state secretary Mohammed Salim, who was to speak after her, as it was evident that many had turned up just to hear her.
Out of power in West Bengal since 2011, when the Trinamool Congress brought its 34-year-long run in office to a halt, the Left Front has thrust a clutch of young faces at the forefront of its efforts to make a turnaround in the state.
And Mukherjee, 39, is its “captain”, a moniker she recently earned from octogenarian CPI(M) leader Biman Bose, the chairperson of the Left Front in West Bengal.
While political observers see her emergence as a frontline leader as the CPI(M) stepping in line with the trend of personality-driven politics, Mukherjee told ThePrint that the Left has no place for personality cults.
“What is the parameter based on which such impressions are arrived at? Is there a particular decibel level? I became a member of the DYFI through a Rs 2 subscription like everyone else in this outfit, and I remain one,” she said.
“I am the secretary in what is a 25-member committee, which follows a model of collective leadership,” she added.
“Yes, as office-bearers, we are individually accountable for executing those joint decisions. We have as many as 4,000 units, over 30 lakh members. Not everyone has a smartphone to track us on a daily basis. That is why I say that the Left ideology is our only glue,” she said.
‘Left politics will be rejuvenated by younger generation’
Born in the industrial town of Kulti, bordering Jharkhand, Mukherjee gained limelight in 2021 when the CPI(M) fielded her from the high-stakes Nandigram constituency, where the BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari eventually defeated Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee by a narrow margin.
While Mukherjee finished third with 6,267 votes, she had emerged as a major crowd-puller during campaigning, entering pockets of the region that had been out of bounds for the Left since its ouster from power.
Her earthy demeanour and provincial Bengali dialect helped her strike a chord with the masses.
Mukherjee, who holds a Master’s degree in political science, joined the DYFI in 2008 and briefly worked as a laboratory assistant.
Over the years, she rose up the ranks to become its state president in 2018, before taking over as the first woman state secretary of the organisation in October 2021.
In early 2022, she was jailed after violence erupted at a DYFI protest in connection with the death of student activist Anis Khan — while Khan’s family alleges he was thrown off the second floor of his home by a policeman and civic police volunteers, a special investigation team reportedly found that he fell accidentally during a raid even as it faulted certain personnel for not following due procedure.
While she was in custody, the DYFI alleged, Mukherjee was “tortured”.
In September 2022, the DYFI held an ‘Insaaf’ meeting in Kolkata in what became a prelude to the 50-day ‘Insaaf Yatra’ that started from Cooch Behar and culminated at Brigade Parade Ground Sunday after traversing over 2,000 kilometres.
Speaking to ThePrint, CPI(M) state secretary Mohammed Salim said the Brigade Parade Ground rally marked a generational shift for Left politics in West Bengal, as it will be “rejuvenated” by the younger generation of the state.
“It was not just about the huge turnout, but the trajectory of Left politics in West Bengal has changed with the rally. A large number of youngsters were mobilised on a political issue by a youth organisation,” he added.
At Sunday’s rally, the dais was occupied by young Left leaders, while veterans such as Bose sat in the audience.
Over the years, Salim said, “we were told that the youth is turning apolitical”.
“Less than a fortnight ago, the BJP could not mobilise even a few thousand people in the name of reciting Bhagavad Gita verses despite pumping in so much money and resources. Here, people turned up despite no star campaigners, star leaders, prime minister, chief minister or help from state machinery,” Salim said.
The last time DYFI held a rally in Brigade was in 2008.
Salim also praised Mukherjee’s “tenacity, determination”.
“The fact that she has been persistently fighting for justice despite police torture and intimidation has helped her win people’s hearts,” he added.
“She has been fighting ever since the murder of Anis Khan. She has not succumbed to any pressure. People feel that this woman can give us justice. She is a team leader.”
However, Jawaharlal Nehru University Professor Dwaipayan Bhattacharyya said there was more to Mukherjee’s rise than that. The Left, he added, has recognised the need to project faces in the era of personality-driven politics.
“The Left has realised that, unless they have a face that draws attention and attracts people, they won’t be able to capture the imagination of the youth,” he added. “They failed to do so when they were in power, resulting in a leadership vacuum after they were unseated. Now it seems they have begun to put their faith in Minakshi Mukherjee to win over youth, minorities and women voters.”
Mukherjee “comes from a working-class family, speaks in a non-elite accent, and has shown remarkable grit and political imagination in her responses to personal and partisan attacks”, he added.
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Faking it?
Mukherjee’s accent, seen as a strength, has been a point of discussion. There has been criticism from certain quarters that she is “faking her subaltern accent” as she is essentially from an upper caste background.
However, these questions mean nothing for Mukherjee.
“Only people who are saying such things will know the basis of such arguments,” she told ThePrint. “My dialect is a product of the area I grew up in.”
While the DYFI’s Brigade rally was a success, acknowledged even by BJP veteran Tathagata Roy and Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, similar turnouts at CPI(M) party events in the past did not find any reflection in the ballot boxes.
Mukherjee counters this by alleging that Bengal has not been witnessing free and fair polls.
“Also, where is it written that one has to accept injustice only because a certain party is not in power or has failed to return to office?” she added. “The Left was in power in West Bengal, Tripura and Kerala. Were we in power in states like Maharashtra, Karnataka, Jammu and Kashmir, or Bihar? The democratic Left fights irrespective of whether they win seats or not.”
In the 2021 assembly elections, the Left Front drew a blank in the state, settling with a vote share of 4.73 per cent, having contested in alliance with the Congress and the Indian Secular Front, led by Islamic cleric Abbas Siddiqui.
In the 2019 general elections, too, no Left candidate won in West Bengal.
Speaking about the rally, Mukherjee said people had been brought together by the actions of the Trinamool Congress government.
“The Trinamool government’s actions have made insaaf the rallying cry for the people here. The government commits murders using the state machinery, political activists are attacked. Anis Khan, Maidul Islam, Sudipto Gupta, Swapan Koley, the list of murdered political activists is really long,” she alleged.
“There is an exodus of workers from the state. The recruitment process in government departments is riddled with irregularities. What else will bring people together if not the demand for justice?” she added.
Bhattacharyya, who authored the book ‘Democratic Left in a Transforming India’, said the Left, which does not have any presence in institutions such as the legislative assembly in West Bengal or Lok Sabha MPs from the state, is making a different pitch now by taking to the streets.
The DYFI rally “was more spirited and spontaneous than many previous brigade rallies of the Left”.
However, he cautioned against expecting a change in the Left’s electoral prospects anytime soon in light of the entrenched polarisation between the TMC and the BJP.
(Edited by Sunanda Ranjan)
Also Read: The Left wants to come back with its own yatra in West Bengal
As one of the few who listened to her speech at DYFI meeting in Kerala, I can feel her commitment. She is confused & has a silly half-backed ideology, but she does put in the effort. Godspeed, lady!