CPM aims for Bengal reboot with young faces in LS poll fray: ‘From zero to a new Left’

Finishing his morning campaign across Falta under Diamond Harbour subdivision of South 24 Parganas district in West Bengal, 34-year-old Pratikur Rehman gets down from the open jeep in which he had been accompanied by state CPI(M) secretary Md Salim and state Congress spokesperson Soumya Aich Roy.

As he is about to enter the CPI(M)’s Amtala Lok Sabha election office for a break, a bystander from the small crowd that has gathered near the party office, jumped ahead to shake his hands and give him a packet of glucose powder.

Another bystander also steps up to apparently hand over a few crumpled currency notes in his clenched fist as party fund donation. “Best of luck, carry on the good work” they whispered in Rehman’s ears.

Similar scenes have been witnessed in several Lok Sabha constituencies of South Bengal. Aiming for its revival and rejuvenation, the Bengal CPI(M) has again fielded its several youth leaders in the polls, including Pratikur Rehman, Srijan Bhattacharya and Dipsita Dhar, who were earlier elevated from their national leadership positions in the party’s student wing SFI to its candidates in the 2021 Assembly elections.

“If college campuses can produce good doctors, lawyers and teachers, why not good politicians? Our aim is to change the system,” says Rehman, talking to The Indian Express in a small anteroom on the first floor of the non-airconditioned party office.

When asked how difficult the turnaround would be, considering that the Congress and Left had together failed to win a seat in the 2021 polls, Rehman says, “Zero is relative. Leftists believe it’s the beginning… There is no space for hopelessness. We’re motivated by the fact that it’s a fresh start, to build a structure on which people can stand up — a