There are hardly any red flags left at Hathighisa village in Naxalbari except for at the house of the late Naxal leader Kanu Sanyal which remains locked. As the Darjeeling seat, under which lies Hathigisha that had stood witness to the Naxal movement, goes to polls on April 26, neither the Communist Party of India (Marxist- Leninist) Liberation or the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has fielded any candidate from it. The only left-leaning party that has named a candidate from the seat is Socialist Unity Centre of India (Communist).
Next to the house of Sanyal lives Shanti Munda, alias Shanti Sarkar, the last of the surviving leaders who had participated in the movement in the late 1960s. “I could not attend the meeting in Kolkata held last month and I am not sure why we do not have a candidate from here,” Ms. Munda said.
Abhijit Mazumdar, a leader of CPI(ML) Liberation and son of the late Communist leader Charu Majumdar, said the party is fielding only one candidate from West Bengal for the Lok Sabha polls from the Bardhaman Purba Lok Sabha seat.
