CPI-M to send senior Bengal leaders, including Mohammad Salim, for Bihar poll campaign.
Party focuses on unemployment as key issue alongside Mahagathbandhan allies.
Congress and Left leaders from West Bengal also join campaign efforts in Bihar.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has decided to send senior leaders from West Bengal to campaign in Bihar, aligning fully with the Mahagathbandhan ahead of the first phase of Assembly elections next week. According to The Statesman, the CPI-M’s central leadership has drawn up a major campaign plan, focusing primarily on the issue of unemployment.
The CPI-M politburo has approved the deployment of senior leaders, including West Bengal state secretary and politburo member Mohammad Salim, who will campaign in Bihar for four days. “We will campaign as per the schedule set by the Bihar leadership,” Salim told The Statesman. “If the state committee seeks additional support, more leaders from West Bengal will be sent,” he added.
In the 2020 Bihar Assembly elections, the CPI-M contested four seats and won two. Both sitting MLAs, Satyendra Yadav and Ajay Kumar, are contesting again this time. The CPI-M is once more contesting four seats as part of the INDIA bloc, which includes the RJD, Congress and Left parties. Within the alliance, the CPI(ML) Liberation is contesting 20 seats, while the CPI-M and CPI have a smaller share under the seat-sharing arrangement.
In a video statement, CPI-M general secretary M A Baby said unemployment remains a central issue in Bihar. “Like the rest of the country, Bihar is facing a severe unemployment crisis. Lakhs of young men and women are struggling to find jobs. The Mahagathbandhan, led by the RJD and supported by Left and secular democratic forces, is contesting this election on the demand for employment,” he said, adding that he was confident voters would back the alliance.
Meanwhile, Congress leaders from West Bengal are also active in the state. Former Berhampore MP and AICC member Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, one of the party’s senior observers for the Bihar polls, has been making frequent visits to Patna. Malda South MP Isha Khan Choudhury has been appointed district observer, while Kolkata councillor Santosh Pathak—who has family roots in Bihar’s Buxar district—is already on the campaign trail.
The Bihar Assembly election has become one of the most high-profile contests in the country, drawing leaders from across parties. While top BJP figures, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, have begun campaigning, it remains unclear whether senior BJP leaders from Bengal, such as state president Shamik Bhattacharya or opposition leader Suvendu Adhikari, will join the effort.
According to The Statesman, CPI(ML) Liberation general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya is currently in Bihar overseeing his party’s campaign. Members of the party’s student and youth fronts from West Bengal have also joined the election drive. Partha Ghosh, a member of the CPI(ML) central committee, said state committee member Nilashis Basu is already in Bihar, though senior leaders from Bengal may stay back due to the upcoming state conference.
(With inputs from The Statesman)
