Sir,
Unlike the Left, the BJP is still projected as an anti intellectual party. That so many intellectuals like Dr Swapan Dasgupta, Dr BS Nanda, Dr Ashok Lahiri, Dr Anirban Ganguly and so on are part of Bengal BJP is encouraging. Many Left unions will issue a demarche asking their people to vote against BJP and vote for the Left- Congress- ISF alliance. This will split the anti- TMC votes and at the end TMC will be the gainer. Example, had a contest between Chandra Kumar Bose and Mamata Banerjee occurred without the fielding of Deepa Das Munshi in the polls, the outcome would have been different. Such alliances have always indulged in vote splitting. Similarly, if Vaiko, Vijayakant, Vasan, Ramadoss not contested the polls in Tamil Nadu polls independently in 2016 and joined NDA, a contest only between DMK and Congress on one hand and the NDA would have resulted in a bigger victory for the NDA.
Thanking you.
Yours truly,
Sauro Dasgupta
UG 3
Department of International Relations
Jadavpur University,
Kolkata