Nandigram: For years, the hammer, sickle and the star reigned supreme over the vast swathes of a red canvas christened West Bengal.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) lorded over the Left Front-ruled Bengal with an iron first for three decades, before a political volcano erupted in this village in East Midnapore district.
The Nandigram agitation ripped apart the CPM's stranglehold over West Bengal for 35 years.
Seeds of destruction
Violence erupted in Nandigram in 2007 after the villagers started protesting against the then Left Front government's bid to acquire 10,000 acres of land for a chemical hub and a Special Economic Zone (SEZ).
It was to be developed by the Indonesia-based Salim group.
After the government notified the land acquisition, the farmers, backed by the Trinamool, Maoists, and the Congress, dug up all the approach roads.
They virtually created a free zone.
As the administration tried to regain control of the area, 14 farmers died in police firing on March 14, 2007, and over 100 were declared "missing".
The government withdrew the land acquisition notification, but violence continued for over a year.
The seeds of CPM's decimation in Bengal had already been sowed.
After ruling the state for 35 years, the CPM lost the power to the Trinamool Congress in the 2011 elections and the Mamata Banerjee government is still going strong.
Return of the Red?
The CPM's party office was vandalised and set ablaze by furious mobs during the 2007.Nandigram agitation.
Now, after 12 years, the CPM opened a party office in Nandigram, ahead of the 2019 Indian general elections.
Sukumar Sen Gupta Bhawan, the main party office of the Left Front, remained deserted and locked for over a decade since the violent agitation.
After opening the party office, the CPM workers also held a rally in the area in support of their Tamluk Lok Sabha candidate Ibrahim Ali.
“This was our biggest party office in Nandigram. It remained closed since the agitators and Trinamool Congress goons attacked the building and set it on fire during the agitation in 2007. Some of our comrades were inside the building then. They jumped out of the window to save their lives,” CPM politburo member Rabin Deb said in the rally.
Rabin left many uneasy issues unsaid.
The re-opening of the CPM's main office in a region, which spearheaded the anti-Left movement in the state, is immensely significant for Deb and his fellow comrades.
Ironically, the CPM views this as a comeback of the masses to the party fold “after witnessing the ‘misrule, violence, appeasement and divisive politics” of the ruling Trinamool Congress government.
Nexus of the disparate elements
The Bharatiya Janata Party, however, is seeing red.
It alleged a nexus between CPM and the Trinamool Congress made it possible for the comrades to reopen the office.
“The opposition support in Tamluk has significantly veered towards BJP. So Trinamool is now forging a nexus with the CPM so that the opposition votes get split in the coming polls. They are supplying oxygen to the Left,” BJP district president Pradeep Das said.
Trinamool Congress candidate Dibyendu Adhikari, however, refuted the charges.
It was the BJP which was picking up scores of Left activists into its fold, he alleged.
Adhikari is the brother of minister Subhendu Adhikari.
“Does the BJP have any future? Will it be there after the 2019 elections? No, it will be finished. They are day-dreaming and talking rubbish. There is no question of having an understanding with CPM. We do not need it. Many CPM activists have rather joined BJP in recent years,” Adhikari said.
Dismissive administration
In 2007, the Left Front was being seen as being insensitive to people’s concerns.
The SEZ controversy started when the government of West Bengal allowed the Salim Group of Indonesia to set up a chemical hub under the SEZ policy at Nandigram.
But farmers of the locality were adamant.
They did not want to give up their land.
Thus the Bhumi Uchhed Pratirodh Committee (BUPC), or the Committee against Land Evictions', was born as a pivot of the agitation.
The CPM-led administration charged the BUPC had the backing of Maoists.
The West Bengal government’s plan was to expropriate 10,000 acres of land for an SEZ to be developed by the Salim Group.
To quell protests, the administration's plan was to let the police forces enter Nandigram in large numbers and douse the “agitation against industrialisation”.
Violence erupted.
Angry agitators blocked the roads leading to the Nandigram for three months from January to March, 2007.
A number of FIRs relating to violence, arson, loot and murder were registered at Nandigram and Khejuri police stations.
The local police, overwhelmingly outnumbered by the agitators, were unable to act during the stand-off.
Thousands of Left sympathisers also had to flee to refugee camps.
Finally, the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government gave in to the demands of the BUPC.
It announced cancellation of the SEZ project in the first week of March, but the damage had been done.
Left's comeback bid
Echoing the voice of Rabin Deb, a political observer said the reopening of the CPM office is a clear indication that the party is slowly regaining momentum in the state.
“We have already seen that the Left is slowly gaining momentum in Bengal. Though the BJP is the main opposition, the CPM is emerging as the third force in the election race,” he said.
Many poll analysts, however, do not fancy the CPM's chances to make major gains.
Some even feel it will lose two sitting seats to the Congress and the BJP.
The CPM currently has two Lok Sabha seats, Murshidabad and Raiganj.
Had there been an alliance between the CPM and the Congress, CPM's Mohammad Salim would have retained the Raiganj seat.
Since Rainganj is considered to be a stronghold of Congress, Deepa Das Munshi is now the party candidate.
In the Murshidabad seat, the CPM's Badaruddoza Khan is facing an uphill battle against the BJPs Humayun Kabir.
Whether the Left will emerge from the remnants of Nandigram will be known in the coming days.
If the CPM makes gains, the red flag at Sukumar Sen Gupta Bhawan in Nandigram will be seen as a bulwark of its resurgence.
