Left Front and After: Understanding the Dynamics of Poriborton in West Bengal

270 Pages·2020·1.868 MB·English

by  Jyotiprasad Chatterjee, Suprio Basu

LEFT FRONT AND AFTER
UNDERSTANDING THE DYNAMICS
OF P O R I B O R T O N IN WEST BENGAL
JYOTIPRASAD CHATTERJEE
SUPRIO BASU
SAGE SERIES ON POLITICS IN INDIAN STATES
VOLUME 3
LEFT FRONT AND AFTER
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LEFT FRONT AND AFTER
UNDERSTANDING THE DYNAMICS
OF PORIBORTON IN WEST BENGAL
JYOTIPRASAD CHATTERJEE
SUPRIO BASU
SAGE SERIES ON POLITICS IN INDIAN STATES–III
SERIES EDITORS
SUHAS PALSHIKAR
RAJESHWARI DESHPANDE
Copyright © Jyotiprasad Chatterjee and Suprio Basu, 2020
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage or retrieval
system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
First published in 2020 by
SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd
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Published by Vivek Mehra for SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd. Typeset in 10.5/13 pt Berkeley by
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2019951240
ISBN: 978-93-532-8723-8 (HB)
SAGE Team: Abhijit Baroi, Syed Husain Naqvi, Mahira Chadha and Kanika Mathur
CONTENTS
List of Figures vii
List of Tables ix
List of Abbreviations xi
Series Note xiii
Introduction 1
Chapter 1 Left Politics: The Challenges 25
Chapter 2 Rise and Growth of AITC: Socio-Cultural
and Political Economic Dimensions 64
Chapter 3 Social Movements and Democratic
Politics in Contemporary West Bengal:
The Cases of Singur and Nandigram 98
Chapter 4 Politics of Identity 126
Chapter 5 Poriborton: West Bengal since 2009 186
Conclusion 211
References 225
Index 243
About the Series Editors and Authors 254

LIST OF FIGURES
I.1 Non-Left Vote Share Since 1977 to 2011 in
Different Assembly Elections in West Bengal 9
1.1 Poverty Level in West Bengal and India
during 1973–2000 33
1.2 SC Vote Share of the Left Front (1996–2016) 38
2.1 Middle Class and Lower Class Vote Share of the
Left Front in Different Elections (Assembly and
Parliamentary) from 1996 to 2016 74
2.2 Performance (in per cent) of the AITC and
the CPI (M) in West Bengal Assembly Elections
from 2001 to 2016 79
3.1 Percentage of Seats Won by the CPI (M) in the
Panchayat Elections 2003 and 2008 115
4.1 Comparative Vote Shares of the AITC and
the LF among the Namasudras (2009–2016) 151
4.2 Comparative Vote Shares of the AITC and the
LF among Muslims (2009–2016) 154
4.3 Rajbansi Vote Share of AITC and BJP (2009–2016) 164
5.1 Rural and Urban Vote Share of AITC in
West Bengal (2009–2016) 197
5.2 Women Vote Share of the AITC and
the Left (2009–2016) 200

LIST OF TABLES
I.1 Voting Preferences of the Upper Caste and
Scheduled Caste Electorates in the Assembly and
Lok Sabha Elections since 1999 23
3.1 Electorate’s Awareness about Singur and
Nandigram Movements and Their Assessments of
LF Government’s Handling of These 106
3.2 Opinion (in %) on Role of CPI (M) in Nandigram 115
3.3 Popularity of Major Political Leaders as
CM Choice 2006 and 2011 118
5.1 Party Vote Share by Election (2009–2016) 186
5.2 Whether the Left Front Government has Failed
or Succeeded in Agricultural Production 188
5.3 Whether the Left Front Government has Failed
or Succeeded in Attracting Investments 189
5.4 Whether the Left Front Government has Failed
or Succeeded on Dignity for Poor 191
5.5 Electorates’ Assessment of the Work Done by
the Mamata Banerjee Government in the State
in the Last Five Years 193
5.6 Muslim Vote Share of Different Political Parties
in the Assembly Election since 2006 200
5.7 Party Preference of the Beneficiaries and
Non-beneficiaries of Different Schemes of
AITC Government in West Bengal 203