Left turns right in Bengal's biz belt

Kolkata: In West Bengal, the Left has decided to go right in the ongoing Assembly elections.

Narayan Jain, the Left candidate for Chowringee constituency, is an income tax consultant and he keeps a company of businessmen.

On his campaign trail, Jain goes door-to-door making a gentle knock and then politely handing over his pamphlet.

But in the heart of the Bengali Bhadralok territory, the Left Front candidate is not a Bengali. Instead, Narayan Jain is a Marwari.

Also, he is not a typical Leftist cadre. Instead, he's an income tax consultant, advocate and a lecturer at IIM.

But the Bengalis of Chowringee, it seems, love their Marwari representative.

"When Bengalis see me on TV, they say that instead of writing Narayan Jain, my name should be Narayan Banerjee," claims Jain.

The 46-year-old Jain strides out confidently among the highrises and swanky cars.

He's a symbol of the Left's growing clout among business leaders and professionals.

His core group of supporters are all businessmen. "Lord Mahavira said: Live and let live, Jiyo aur jeene do. There is a similarity between Mahavira's teachings and Marxism," says Jain.

The affluent upper classes of Chowinghee can't get enough of him. They say the CPI-M has changed. CPM is for poor and rich nowadays.

Jain pushes an unabashed pro-reform, pro-business line. His main concern is to make West Bengal safe for business. "The laws which are not relevant today, should be scrapped. And after the new government comes, we will take that initiative," he says.

Jain, the Marwari face of the Left Front, is a symbol of how the Left Front is growing among social groups, where it was once shunned.

Once a party of the rural poor, now businessmen and supporters make up the new Left.

Marxism and business people are no longer at loggerheads. In days gone by, it would have been almost impossible to find CPI(M) supporters in the posh, sophisticated environment of Gurshudai Road in South Kolkata.

But now, even among a gathering of IT professionals, corporate lawyers, tax consultants, business people and industrial leaders, they are convinced that the CPI(M) is not just their party, but the party of the future of West Bengal.

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