‘Right-Left-Right’ and Caste Politics: The Scheduled Castes in West Bengal Assembly Elections (from 1920 to 2016)

Abstract

Since the beginning of the provincial election in the early twentieth century, ‘caste’ has been a ‘political issue’ in India. It transformed into a matter of serious political contradiction when the ‘reservation’ was introduced in India. After the independence of India, in all provincial and parliamentary elections starting from to 1952 till date, organized political parties have further contributed to the ‘process of politicization of caste’. Truly speaking, caste is now a ‘determinant factor’ for formation of the union government. This trend has been equally detected in certain provinces of India especially where the Scheduled Castes (SCs) have substantial concentration. West Bengal, with 21,463,270 SC population (i.e., 23.5% of the state’s population), has been experiencing caste politics since 1952. However, the SCs of this state have been used in electoral politics merely as ‘voters’. They were controlled by the ‘Rights’, till 1962. The period from 1962 to 1976 was a transitional phase from the ‘Rights’ to ‘Lefts’. The ‘Lefts’ established their control over the SCs in 1977. However, re-emergence of the ‘Rights’ (particularly of the All India Trinamool Congress [AITMC]) in 2011 has transformed the SCs as the ‘puppet dancers’ under the direction of the ‘Rights’.