The CPI(M) sees a silver lining in the Falta Assembly poll results

Security personnel stand guard outside a vault amid the counting of votes for a rerun at Diamond Harbor Women’s University in Falta. FILE | Photo credit: ANI

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) is elated with the results of the re-poll in the Falta constituency, where party candidate Sambhu Nath Kurmi came second.

BJP candidate Debangshu Panda won the election by over 1.09 lakh votes securing about 71.2% of the total votes polled. Mr. Kurmi polled 40,625 votes, garnering 19.34% of the total votes.

The CPI(M) secured only 4.45% of the votes in the 2026 West Bengal Assembly elections and won only one seat – Domkal in Murshidabad district. The CPI(M) candidate’s vote share has increased four times in the new Falta poll.

CPI(M) State Secretary Md. Buoyed by the Falta result, Salim said the Trinamool Congress was “melting faster than ice” in this summer heat.

“This result is a reflection of CPI(M)’s stand towards the poor and marginalized,” he said. Mr. Salim called the Trinamool the progenitor of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), which prevented people from exercising their democratic rights. “Once democracy is restored and people are free to express themselves, there will be a resurgence of the left,” he said.

TMC withdraws

Two days before the re-polling in Falta on May 21, Trinamool Congress candidate Jahangir Khan withdrew from the contest. Despite officially withdrawing, the Trinamool candidate remained part of the contest and polled 7,783 votes.

Congress candidate Abdur Razzak Molla also got 10,084 votes. A re-poll was ordered in Falta following allegations of electoral fraud during voting in the second phase of the West Bengal assembly elections on April 29.

With the BJP coming to power in West Bengal, the pre-election discussions are now on as to who will occupy the opposition space. The Trinamool Congress has 80 MLAs in the State Assembly, but the party leadership seems to be in a state of shock and has not been able to stand up to the party workers.

Desertion in TMC ranks

Over 70 local Trinamool Congress leaders have been arrested in the last 20 days. Trinamool Congress councilors from several municipalities are resigning en masse. Eight Trinamool Congress councilors from Diamond Harbor municipality, a TMC stronghold, resigned on Monday.

The CPI(M) sees the situation as an opportunity to occupy the opposition space. Over the past few years, Mr. Salim and other CPI(M) leaders have said that the real fight is between the Left and the Right and the Trinamool Congress was a “special purpose vehicle created” exclusively to fight the Left.

However, political experts say it is too early to say who will emerge as opposition to the BJP. “It will depend on whether the attacks on the Trinamool Congress continue in the next few months,” the CPI(M) leader said.

Published – 25 May 2026 20:51 IST