engal has been a land which had embraced Progressive thoughts since ages when the en-
tire nation was burning due to communal riots, the land of Bengal had provided shelter to numer-
ous people. It is the land where humanity comes before religion. However, things have changed all
these years; the people of Bengal are going through turmoil after the Trinamool government came
to power. Added to it, we witness the BJP spreading its communal venom all through the state and
mobilizing riots.
The Lok Sabha Elections of 2019 were a big blow to the Left and other Progressive Forces.
There was complete Modi Wave throughout the country, and the BJP led by Narendra Modi swept
the Elections for a second time with more seats. BJP alone got more than 300 seats increasing its tally
from what it got last time in 2014. The anti-BJP Forces faired in Tamil Nadu where a combined Al-
liance of DMK-Congress-Left won a sizeable majority. The Left Forces bagged four seats (CPIM- 2,
CPI-2). In Kerala, the Left’s result was pathetic where the Left got only one seat. However, in this state,
the BJP got no seat whereas the Congress-led UDF got 19 out of the 20 seats. The worst result was in
West Bengal, where the Left Forces could not bag one seat, and its vote share had fallen from 29% to

8 Student Struggle | March - April 2019

E L E C T I O N

Misrule in the

Land of Tagore and Nazrul

Shuvajit Sarkar

Presidency University

B

Student Struggle | June - July 2019