Economist and social activist Prasenjit Bose, once a prominent student leader of the Left at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), formally joined the Congress party on Monday in Kolkata, saying he was committing himself to the struggle to defend India’s Constitution and voting rights.
Bose, 51, received the Congress membership form from West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee president Shubhankar Sarkar at a ceremony at Ram Mohan Mancha in North Kolkata. He was welcomed into the party by youth leader Kanhaiya Kumar, Rajya Sabha Congress member Syed Nasir Hussain, and AICC general secretary and state observer Ghulam Ahmad Mir.
“The biggest challenge before the people is to resist the Special Intensive Revision so that the right to vote is protected,” Bose said. He added that he was joining Congress because he believes the party under Rahul Gandhi is leading the opposition fight on the ground. “What the Left often says in words, Rahul Gandhi is doing on the streets,” Bose said.
Bose rose to prominence in the 1990s as a face of the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) in JNU. He later became a key voice for the Communist Party of India (Marxist), but resigned in 2012 over the CPI(M)’s decision to support Pranab Mukherjee’s presidential bid. In recent years, he has been active as an economist, researcher, and commentator on social issues.
His decision to enter the Congress fold highlights the party’s attempt to draw on intellectuals and former Left leaders in West Bengal as it seeks to position itself as an alternative to the ruling Trinamool Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party. “Congress can play a vital role in building an alternative to the polarization between TMC and BJP,” Bose said.
Hussain, who once faced Bose as a rival in JNU student elections, called his entry into Congress “a strengthening of democratic movements.” On Facebook, Bose said his immediate objective was to reinforce democratic struggles and rebuild a progressive alternative in both the state and the nation.
Several other former Left leaders, including Kanhaiya Kumar, D.P. Tripathi, and Shakeel Ahmed Khan, have previously joined Congress. However, Bose’s induction has sparked some unease within the party’s student wing, with sections accusing the leadership of giving undue prominence to outsiders over long-time workers.
Despite the internal dissent, state Congress leaders said Bose’s stature as a public intellectual and economist would boost the party’s credibility in West Bengal, where it is striving to regain lost ground.
