By Bhattacharya’s own admission, the criminalisation of politics has affected the CPI(M). Says he: "As CM, it’s my duty to see that a person, merely by virtue of belonging to the CPI(M), isn’t placed above the law."
But the politician-criminal nexus is the least of Bhattacharya’s problems. The charge that the Left Front is diluting its ideology by courting private capital touches a raw nerve too many. Says Bhattacharya: "As chief minister I must invite capitalists, industrialists, because we need employment and development."
However, at a time when the middle-class electorate is getting restive, thanks to the increasing number of terrorist attacks in this red bastion, and no thanks to the BJP propaganda almost equating Muslims with terrorism, it remains to be seen how Bhattacharya does the balancing act. Between his party’s anti-communal ideology and pragmatic demands of electoral politics. That will be the gentleman-comrade’s true litmus test.
