The CPI(M) will begin its 1,000-km ‘Bangla Bachao Yatra’ on 29 November, aiming to expose "injustice, loot and systematic democratic erosion" under the TMC and oppose the BJP’s "anti-people policies".
Party leaders say the initiative is a bid to revive a third political pole in Bengal, as the Left struggles with a steep decline in vote share and loss of electoral relevance.
CPI(M) Launches 1,000-km 'Bangla Bachao Yatra' To Counter TMC And BJP Ahead Of 2026 Polls
Spanning 11 districts, the mobilisation seeks to reconnect the weakened Left with voters, highlighting grievances ranging from rural healthcare collapse to distress among workers and farmers.
Summary
The CPI(M) will launch a 1,000-km 'Bangla Bachao Yatra' on November 29, a statewide mobilisation it says will expose "injustice, loot and systematic democratic erosion" under the TMC-led state government while countering what it describes as the BJP-led Centre's "anti-people policies" that have deepened distress across Bengal.
The once-formidable Left, now fighting for electoral relevance, hopes the campaign will re-energise its cadre and reconnect with voters, setting the stage for an intense political winter ahead of the 2026 Assembly elections.
Running from November 29 to December 17, the yatra will begin at Tufanganj in Cooch Behar district in North Bengal and end at Kamarhati in North 24 Parganas district, covering 1,000 km across 11 districts and several adjoining regions.
Multiple sub-yatras from neighbouring areas will merge with the main procession.
The CPI(M) said the route has been crafted to "connect with every segment of Bengal that has suffered due to misgovernance".
According to organisers, the mobilisation will spotlight a wide range of concerns, from the alleged collapse of rural healthcare and schooling to the hardships faced by farmers, migrant workers, tea garden labourers, bidi workers and gig-economy earners.
The party claims both governments have, in different ways, worsened livelihood and democratic crises in Bengal.
CPI(M) state secretary Mohammed Salim, addressing a select group of journalists in Kolkata on Monday night, said the "Bangla Bachao Yatra" is intended as a corrective movement.
"The Bengal government has turned the state into story of loot, corruption, misrule and deprivation, while the BJP at the Centre has unleashed policies that have devastated workers, farmers and the poor," Salim said.
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"From education to employment, from healthcare to women's safety, every pillar has been hollowed out. This yatra is our pledge to restore dignity, rights and democracy, and to resist anti-people policies in Delhi and anti-people governance in Kolkata," he added.
Salim said the march will foreground real-life testimonies of those "caught between TMC's corruption and the BJP's economic assault".
"Bengal must reclaim its voice," he said.
The TMC did not immediately respond to the announcement, while the BJP has typically dismissed such Left initiatives as "irrelevant political exercises".
CPI(M) leaders, however, argue that Bengal's current bipolar politics is "a compulsion, not a choice", and say the yatra seeks to rebuild a third pole based on rights and accountability.
For the CPI(M), the initiative comes at a pivotal moment.
Once the dominant force in West Bengal, governing continuously from 1977 to 2011, the Left has been pushed to the fringes over the past decade.
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The decline in its vote share has been stark.
The CPI(M)-led Left Front secured 39 per cent of votes in 2011, with the CPI(M) alone accounting for 30 per cent. By the 2021 Assembly elections, the Left Front's share had fallen to 4.73 per cent.
In seat-sharing deals with the Congress in 2016, 2021 and again in 2024 under the Sanyukta Morcha banner — which included smaller Left parties and the Indian Secular Front — the alliance managed only around 10 per cent.
The BJP, by contrast, now commands nearly 39 per cent of the opposition vote share, marking a dramatic shift in Bengal's political landscape.
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This steady decline persists despite the CPI(M)'s mass organisations — particularly its student and youth wings — leading several large yatras in recent years.
Those campaigns brought tens of thousands onto the streets on issues such as unemployment, corruption and women's safety. Yet the energy did not translate into electoral success, a paradox the Left openly recognises as its central challenge.
With both the BJP and the TMC intensifying their messaging ahead of 2026, the CPI(M)'s 1,000-km yatra represents a determined push to re-enter Bengal's polarised political field and reposition itself as a credible alternative.
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