'First Ram, Then Bam' Was a Result, Not the Cause, of Left's Decline in Bengal

Those blaming the slogan for Left's fall must know it was never approved by the CPI(M) or the Left leadership.

During the recent state elections as well, the CPI(M)-led Left Front leaders consistently appealed to its former support base to vote for the Left candidates rather than the BJP.

(Photo: The Quint)

(This article is a Counterview to an opinion piece published by The Quint on 18 May, in which author Niladri Chatterjee argues that the ‘First Ram, Then Bam’ idea is a political self-sabotage dressed up as tactical realism. Read the View here.)

While analysing the maiden victory of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in West Bengal, a section of intelligentsia is directly or indirectly trying to blame the Left, primarily the Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPI(M), for helping the former in ending the 15-year rule of the Trinamool Congress (TMC)-led by Mamata Banerjee. To reinforce their argument, they cite the slogan—Aagey Ram, Pore Bam (First Ram, then Left).

In a recent piece for The Quint, author Niladri Chatterjee too cited this slogan, linking it to the self-inflicted political sabotage of the Left. He further wrote, “It (Left) cannot revive class politics while helping legitimise a force (read BJP) that reframes inequality through religious majoritarianism.”

The thesis, while capturing the disillusionment many former Left-supporters/sympathisers feel over the Left's deteriorating form, misidentifies the causes and oversimplifies reality.

Not Approved by Left Leadership

Those sections of the intelligentsia citing the slogan “Aagey Ram, Pore Bam” as the sole cause of the Left's downfall must know that it was never approved by the CPI(M) or the Left leadership. On the contrary, senior Left leaders, including late former state chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, repeatedly warned supporters against such tendencies.

During the recent state elections as well, the CPI(M)-led Left Front leaders consistently appealed to its former support base to vote for the Left candidates rather than the BJP.

From state party secretary Mohammad Salim to former Tripura chief minister Manik Sarkar, former politburo member Brinda Karat to party’s new state face Meenakshi Mukherjee, all projected the Left as an alternative to both the TMC and the BJP.

These statements run counter to the argument that “the Left legitimised the BJP”, though they often remain missing from critical discourse. In fact, “Aagey Ram, Pore Bam” slogan, embraced by large sections of the Left’s grassroots, emerged due to the weakness of the Left.

The slogan was the outcome of the Left’s diminishing effectiveness and influence, not the cause. To present this slogan as a crucial reason for the Left’s decline is to confuse consequence with the cause, and amounts to a flawed understanding of the state’s political dynamics.

Between Cause and Effect

After the fall of the 34 years of CPI(M)-led Left front government in 2011, the Left failed to properly present itself as a strong Opposition in the state, despite having issues like Saradha scam, and large-scale unemployment.

Internally, there was a leadership vacuum within the CPI(M), with former CM Buddhadeb slowly withdrawing himself from politics due to his failing health. In his absence, there was no other mass-appealing and strong face within the party. Former minister Suryakanta Mishra, who was made the Leader of Opposition, failed to emerge as a popular and strong Opposition leader.

Meanwhile, the conditions of the other Left parties—All India Forward Bloc (AIFB), Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP), and Communist Party of India (CPI)—were worse than CPI(M).

Amid this, the Left cadres and supporters across the state faced brutal violence at the hands of the TMC’s local leaders and their supporters. The Left leadership not only failed to protect their base but also failed to launch a grassroots movement to challenge the TMC.

It wasn’t that the Left completely lost ground post-2011 elections. In the 2013 three-tier panchayat elections, the Left performed well in North Bengal, winning the undivided Jalpaiguri Zilla Parishad and was just one seat short of majority in the North Dinajpur Zilla Parishad. It tied with the Congress to emerge as the largest political front in the Malda Zilla Parishad, while losing to the ruling TMC in a closely contested election in South Bengal’s Nadia Zilla Parishad.

But within a year, the Left’s graph not only decreased more but there were signs of the BJP growing at the expense of the Left, which managed to win only two seats in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections with a vote share of 29.61 percent—a loss of more than 11 percent votes in comparison with the 2011 elections. On the other hand, the BJP polled 16.84 percent—a rise of more than 12 percent votes in 2014 elections in comparison to the 2011 elections—and even won two seats.

This was the first major sign of the Left’s base shifting to the BJP, which was then in ascendance in national politics, riding on a massive "Modi wave".

This section saw the nationally emerging saffron force as a safer option in comparison to the Left, which despite being the main Opposition in the state assembly failed to put up a strong and a sustained resistance against the ruling TMC.

Setbacks and Defeat

Two years later, CPI(M)-led Left Front allied with its once-arch rival Congress and tried to present a strong opposition against the ruling TMC but this loosely built alliance didn’t receive support from people, including a section of Congress voters. This alliance only got 77 seats while the TMC upped its tally to 211. The CPI(M) ceding too many seats to the Congress—including in areas where it was a weak force—didn’t go down well with the Left’s support base.

Following this setback, the shift of the Left Front’s support base towards the BJP resumed after a brief pause. This shift fastened after the 2018 panchayat elections where the ruling TMC using its state power, brutally suppressed the Opposition by preventing candidates from filing nominations or forcing them to withdraw from contests.

Once again the Left leadership appeared unable to effectively defend their candidates. This failure fastened the shift of the Left support base to the BJP, which went on to win 18 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha seats.

In this election, the saffron party’s vote increased to 40.25 percent votes while Left’s vote share dropped to 7.46 percent. In comparison to the 2014 elections, the Left’s vote decreased by around 22 percent while the BJP’s votes increased by 23 percent—a clear indication of a large section of the Left’s support base (mostly Hindus) moving to the BJP.

The 2019 results gave hope among the minds of the Opposition’s voters, mostly Left, that the TMC could be defeated by the BJP—and it was this hope that prevented the former Left support base from returning back to the Left.

It was during the 2019 election that the slogan “Aagey Ram, Porey Bam” emerged. Later, this slogan became popular among former Left’s support base that had moved to the BJP.

In the 2021 elections, the Left’s vote share stood at 5.67 percent while in 2024 it increased to 6.3 percent. But again dropped to 5.18 percent in this recent state election. These figures show that post-2019 elections, the Left's loss was minimal, indicating that most of the electoral alignment had already occurred by 2019.

A Polarised Background

Notably, the TMC government's pro-minority stance caused dissatisfaction among a large section of Hindus. At this time, the BJP emerged with its Hindutva politics as a counter to the TMC’s pro-Muslim identity politics—and this attracted a significant section of the majority Hindus, including the Left’s Hindu base.

When Hindu consolidation was gradually taking shape in favour of the BJP, the Left leadership failed to respond effectively. Its inability to look things beyond class politics, and understand identity politics is a major reason for the Left’s decline, contributing to the shift of its large Hindu base to the saffron party.

Identity—both caste and religion—is an integral part of people's lived experience. Ignoring identity issues in the name of class struggle has always hurt the Left.

This was evident in North India during the 1980s and 1990s, where the Left suffered setbacks from which it never fully recovered. It thought identity politics wouldn't shape its once old bastion of West Bengal’s politics. Hence, it was never bothered about how to engage with identity politics. As a result, the Left failed to properly engage with identity politics when it started becoming a factor in the state in the last decade.

Apart from this, the Left’s traditional criticism against capitalism ignores the post-1991 economic realities and seems outdated, having limited appeal among the younger generation.

While it is true that the CPI(M) has been able to bring many young faces and some of them have been able to attract crowd attention, this change was too late to reverse the political realignment of the state.

In addition, the political language and messaging of many of these leaders remains largely unchanged.

(Sagarneel Sinha is a political commentator and tweets @SagarneelSinha. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)