Ahead of CPM’s youth wing meet, a bid to regain lost ground in Bengal

During Left rule in the state from 1977 to 2011, the DYFI gradually became CPIM’s biggest mass organisation and basically was the backbone of grassroots-level connect. But after electoral defeat in 2011, the DYFI gradually weakened.

In 2011, when the Left Front government was defeated by Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC), the DYFI’s membership count stood at 95 lakh. But in 2012, it decreased to 50 lakh. In the next seven years, this number again dropped to 26 lakh. And despite attempts since 2019 to grow the organisation, in 2021, the DYFI had just 21 lakh members.

The 11th All India Conference of the DYFI will be held from May 12-15 at Salt Lake’s EZCC campus, also known as ‘Diego Maradona city,’ as a tribute to the late Argentina footballer who is much admired by football enthusiasts in Bengal. The state unit of the DYFI also organised a mixed gender football match in the run-up to the conference. Both male and female players played on both teams and the referees belonged to the transgender community.

Nearly 20,000 DYFI flags have come up across Salt Lake city and several cutouts of  Maradona can be seen on the way to the conference venue.

A marathon from Howrah Kadamtala to Dinesh Majumdar Bhawan the state office of DYFI in Kolkata, was also organised, with 45 participants, including two women. Inaugurating the marathon, state DYFI president Minakshi Mukherjee said, “The event is meant to forge harmony, as unity in India’s current political atmosphere stands threatened and so does the Constitution.”

A two-day carnival was organised in Bijoygarh that began with a blood donation camp on May 7. A number of film screenings was also part of the carnival, which was inaugurated by actor Sabyasachi Chakraborty in the presence of filmmaker Tarun Majumdar. A music festival was also organised.

To highlight the message of gender equality, the DYFI also organised tree plantation drives. The state youth leaders of CPIM went to Sundarban areas to plant mangrove trees.

The DYFI will also organise a cycle rally from student leader Anis Khan’s house.

Anis, a student leader of Aliah University, was found dead near his residence in Amta in the early hours of February 19. His family has alleged that he was murdered. However, the DYFI and CPIM leadership did not want to refer to minority politics in these two rallies. CPIM leader and former DYFI leader, Shatarup Ghosh said, “We went to the house of the Nadia gangrape victim and arranged for her final farewell. There is no question of religion politics. We are standing beside the helpless people of West Bengal.

CPIM state secretary Minakshi Mukherjee said, “We are not doing politics on religious lines. We are fighting against that. We are fighting against those who are trying to weaken the constitution.”