Oppn fear: Rise in clashes across state may lead to more TMC nominees winning unopposed

With reports of Opposition candidates being prevented from filing nominations, allegedly by ruling party workers, BJP claimed that Trinamool was aiming for Opposition-free rural bodies. “It is evident from the continuous violence that Trinamool does not want Opposition candidates to file nominations. They are intensifying the attacks every day to ensure their candidates win uncontested. We would not be surprised if 30 per cent of Trinamool’s candidates win uncontested,” said BJP national secretary Rahul Sinha.

According to West Bengal State Election Commission (WBSEC) data, the number of uncontested wins in panchayat polls had surpassed 10 per cent only on two occasions in the last 40 years — 2003 (11 per cent) and 2013 (10.66 per cent).

After assuming office in 1977, the Left established a vibrant Panchayati Raj system. A system of democratic elections to local bodies was instituted — gram panchayats at anchals, panchayat samitis at blocks and zilla parishads at districts. Elections to these local bodies were first held in June 1978.

“During the Left regime, other parties did not have a strong organisational base. Thus, the Opposition could not field candidates in places where they did not have party offices. But now the situation has changed. Now, Opposition candidates, despite having organisational presence, cannot file nominations due to the terror and intimidation of the ruling party,” said a senior CPM leader.

More candidates win uncontested in districts, which witness most of the violence unleashed by the ruling party, the leader alleged, adding that Hooghly and West Midnapore have recorded most uncontested wins during the Left regime.

“During Trinamool’s rule, almost the whole of south Bengal, including Hooghly, West Midnapore, Bankura, Birbhum and Burdwan, have registered most uncontested wins,” said the CPM leader. Ahead of this year’s polls, most incidents of pre-poll violence are being reported from south Bengal.

Since the issuance of poll notification on April 2 (one can file nomination till April 9), incidents of violence have been reported in several districts, with TMC cadres allegedly preventing Opposition candidates from filing nominations.
On April 3, BJP district general secretary Kalosona Mondal was attacked in Birbhum’s Suri when he had gone to the DM office to submit a deputation against “Trinamool’s violence”. BJP’s Murshidabad district president, Gouri Shankar Ghosh, was beaten up when took his party’s candidates to file nomination at the BDO office in Lalbagh. At Arambagh in Hooghly, BJP’s Bilash Laxman was driven out of the SDO office, allegedly by Trinamool workers, and beaten up.

On Wednesday, a BJP worker, Ajit Murmu, was killed outside the BDO at Ranibandh in Bankura. At Raiganj in North Dinajpur, BJP workers alleged that Trinamool-backed goons had opened fire and hurled bombs at their candidates.

The Congress accused Trinamool of stifling the Opposition’s voice by not allowing its candidate to file nominations. “TMC wants to make this an Opposition-free state, where people would not be allowed to exercise their fundamental right to vote. A party that cries about throttling freedom of expression in various issues, is now doing the same to the Opposition,” said party leader Riju Ghoshal.

The TMC, however, denied all allegations. “These are baseless allegations. So far, Opposition candidates have filed more nominations than Trinamool. BJP, CPM and Congress are crying foul and trying to malign our party’s image,” said party secretary general Partha Chatterjee.

He was referring to the state EC data showing that while in case of elections to gram panchayats and panchayat samitis, number of nominations filed by BJP candidates was less than that of TMC, in case of zilla parishad polls, BJP has filed more nominations than the ruling party this year.