Bengal Panchayat Polls: In Mandate vs Dignity, Mamata Govt’s Priority Wears Thin

Very few will doubt that the ruling Trinamool Congress is set to win a convincing mandate in the upcoming three-tier panchayat polls in West Bengal. But ironically, the ruling party seems to be losing out a different battle. The battle of perception in which the image of the state has been left scarred, bruised, and stigmatised following a bloody spectacle that unfolded in the run-up to the polls.

The body count since 8 June when the polls were declared, has gone up to 16. The last one to be killed was a 17-year-old Muslim school student. Goons threw bombs from rooftops killing the youth on the northern outskirts of Kolkata.

Scores of others have been maimed, wounded and hundreds of incidents of arson, intimidation, and extreme violence have taken place. There is fear of more violence on the polling day on 8 July.

Should there be more bloodshed, it is bound to cast further aspersions on the ruling party’s ability and sincerity in ensuring a peaceful poll. A deviation from that would rob the rulers of the legitimacy of a fair win.

Violence and Victory: Inevitable Poll Outcomes

A victory stained with blood might just not be in the right scheme of things with Opposition alliance conclaves lined up after the rural body polls in which Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress is an important stakeholder. An unprecedented level of security deployment is taking place In Bengal with over 66,000 central armed police personnel trouping down in the state.

There will be additional deployment of the state government’s 70,000-strong security forces. At stake, are nearly 74,000 seats in three-tier panchayat bodies for which over 200,000 contenders have filed their nominations.

Such a massive security deployment has been mandated first by the Calcutta High Court and then upheld by the Supreme Court when challenged by the ruling party. The reluctance on the part of the ruling Trinamool Congress government to ensure the safety and security of the electorate in a state where it enjoys overwhelming public support was somewhat unexplained.

The judicial interventions and the proclamations by the Apex Courts have been highly embarrassing for the Bengal government in the public eye. As the Trinamool Congress party and the State Election Commission (SEC) continued to be in a mode of denial about deteriorating law and order situations, the judiciary sharpened its assertions on the SEC and the state machinery.

Sample of these observations. "Conduct of the elections cannot be a license to commit violence," the Supreme Court ordered when the West Bengal government filed a Special Leave Petition challenging a Calcutta High order about the deployment of security forces. The Apex Court refused to intervene in the state’s appeal.

Central Security Deployment

Earlier, the Calcutta High Court had pulled up the State Election Commission for allegedly "dragging its feet” in requisitioning central forces and set a deadline of 48 hours for it to comply with the order.

The state moved the Supreme Court. The bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and Justice Manoj Mishra while hearing appeals by the Mamata Banerjee government emphasised: “Free and fair elections are a hallmark of grassroots democracy" and deployment of central forces will ascertain decorum not only at the sensitive booths but all in the state.

While the Court rulings were scathing, the West Bengal governor rubbed salt to the wound. Dr C V Ananda Bose set out on a whistle-stop tour of the violence-affected areas and met families of political violence. Describing himself as a "Ground Zero Governor,” the Bengal Governor rushed to the houses of victims, mounting an attack on the state as well as the SEC saying that it would be held responsible for each drop of blood spilled.

As if this was not enough, the Bengal Governor set up a 24X7 "Peace control room” at Raj Bhavan to monitor complaints of poll violence and ensure remedial steps. The TMC leaders responded with an acrimonious attack on the Governor accusing him of transgressing limits and acting according to a script of the BJP.

Anti-Incumbency for TMC

Ironically, the Trinamool Congress party has suffered the maximum casualties in the pre-poll violence, having lost close to 10 party supporters out of a total of 16 deaths so far. For the TMC, though anti-incumbency might be a factor in certain areas, particularly in North Bengal districts, the party does not seem to be under any threat to be dislodged from grassroots bodies.

The opposition is split between the Left-Congress combined on one side and the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party on the other, making the ensuing battle a three-cornered one. This should help the ruling dispensation in the outcome. The party has already won 12 % of the seats of the panchayats unopposed. In districts like Malda and Murshidabad, the Left and the Congress have forged a strong partnership to erode some of the Trinamool Congress vote banks and made inroads. It will be significant to watch how it reflects in the ballots and its deeper significance in the future.

Finally, a transformation to a peaceful ballot would have been in West Bengal’s own enduring interest. Even states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar have largely been able to eliminate electoral violence in recent times. Similar transition would have brought respect to the state’s ruling party and given dignity to Mamata Banerjee’s victory.

(The writer is a Kolkata-based senior journalist. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)