Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Rural Bengal has kept its faith in the TMC,but the party cannot afford to ignore the warning signs
In West Bengal,the massive electoral swing that began after the rural polls of 2008 appears to have come a full circle. The Left and the Congress have been routed by the TMC,which has won 13 out of 17 zilla parishads in the 2013 panchayat polls. There is an odd symmetry to the reversal of fortunes. In 2008,it was the Left that had won 13 zillas. There are other similarities between the CPM of 2008 and the TMC of 2013,many of them troubling. Polls are still marked by violence,with at least 24 killed this year. Like the CPM in 2008,the TMC has won a large number of seats unopposed more than 6,000. Accounts of coercion,and of rival candidates not being allowed to file their nominations,cannot be dismissed. Nevertheless,rural Bengal has reinforced the mandate won by the TMC in the assembly elections of 2011. And the party has registered some remarkable feats. For instance,it has swept the Maoist-affected areas of Jangalmahal,though this was also the area where many seats went uncontested. It has breached Congress and Left bastions in north and central Bengal.
The TMCs success owes in no small measure to the Lefts lack of imagination. Thrown into disarray after 2011,the CPM has not been able to reinvent itself,come up with a new idea that could appeal to voters or sufficiently regroup its cadre. The verdict in favour of the TMC is in part an outcome of the continuing disaffection against the Left. Voters have chosen to keep their faith in the TMC. The party must now live up to its mandate.
