Pradeep Gooptu: No longer left out

BACKSTAGE

Biman Bose, elected state secretary of the CPI(M) following the untimely demise of Anil Biswas, is a man who has been dumped on the hottest seat in West Bengal. For Bose, a bachelor and die-hard party street fighter, this baptism by fire is possibly welcome, for he is today responsible for steering the Left to victory in the West Bengal Assembly elections for a record seventh term. He has, in private conversations, said he felt honoured that the posts of state secretary and that of the chairman of the Left Front had once again been reunited under him.

In other words, Bose sees himself as a man following in the footsteps of legendary Bengal-based Left leaders like Pramode Dasgupta, who built up the Left movement in the state, unified the Left parties and led them to victory in the 1977 elections, and served as the state secretary of the CPI-M and the chairman of the Left Front in West Bengal.

Bose is known to be someone who will debate a subject and will not dismiss a differing viewpoint simply because he is a powerful leader in the ruling party. If any government or party decision is criticised as being wrong, his typical response is not anger, but the quiet and simple retort, "Prove it to me". Which is why Bose saved Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's government when he faced down some Left hardliners who opposed acquisition of large plots of land for townships or industrial projects and persuaded them to accept the government's industrialisation agenda.

However, he has a temper that has, at times, landed him in trouble. When a high court judge slapped a ban on political rallies in Kolkata, Bose came out in open opposition to the judge, landed himself in judicial contempt proceedings, and had to work hard to get himself out of trouble.

Bose, who loves his smoke and prefers home-style food cooked by his brother and sister-in-law, was a favourite of Pramode Dasgupta but faced intense opposition in his climb up the party order from the likes of Jyoti Basu. Basu, as the co-architect of the Left success in Bengal with Pramode Dasgupta, had his eye on other Left leaders such as Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, Somnath Chatterjee and Subhas Chakravorti who, like him, focussed on the Kolkata urban area. In contrast, men like Biswas and Bose toiled in the non-urban hinterland along with the CPI-M's powerful Burdwan district party leaders who ensured the success of the Left's land reforms programme and ensured its electoral success.

However, all of Jyoti Basu's influence could not prevent the rise of either Biswas and Bose, and last fortnight, the final elevation of Bose to post of both general secretary and chairman.