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Journalism of Courage
Widespread violence during the West Bengal panchayat elections in 2018 in which Trinamool Congress (TMC) won 34% of the seats unopposed and 13 people lost their lives boomeranged on the Mamata Banerjee-led party the following year as its Lok Sabha tally plummeted from 34 to 22 and the BJP rose as the primary Opposition party by putting in its best-ever performance.
In a rerun of the violence five years ago, at least 13 people have died in West Bengal during voting for the rural polls on Saturday and allegations of electoral malpractices have been raised. These incidents have triggered a war of words between the ruling party and the Opposition, with both sides blaming each other. No matter who is to blame for the violence, the ruling party is likely to be worried because of memories of what transpired in the Lok Sabha polls last time. With over a third of the seats uncontested — this time the figure was 10% — a large number of people in rural areas could not exercise their right to vote last time and this contributed to the groundswell of anger against the TMC in the Lok Sabha polls.
The TMC, clearly singed by the results in 2019, went on a major public outreach programme before the Assembly elections two years later. It managed to comfortably win the polls but as massive violence broke out after the elections, with BJP workers and their families targeted across the state and forced to flee from their homes, the Trinamool tried to cool things down as the state’s image also took a hit because of large-scale post-poll violence. The Calcutta High Court ordered a CBI probe into the matter as reports of murder, rape and clashes were rampant after May 2, 2021 (when election results were declared).
Despite the party leadership’s attempts violence occurred again during the civic polls later that year. Then, in May 2022, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at a meeting of the party’s national working committee in Kolkata said she would not tolerate any violence during the panchayat elections and announced she would tour districts to meet panchayat and booth-level workers to drive home the message.
“Under any circumstances, both Mamata and Abhishek Banerjee (CM’s nephew and TMC MP) are not ready to allow violence in panchayat elections. They were not happy with the violence that occurred in the recent civic polls,” a senior TMC leader told The Indian Express at the time. “Mamata Banerjee wants the party to win an absolute majority in the panchayat elections but without resorting to violence and bloodshed.”
In an attempt to ensure the party’s seriousness about its stand, Abhishek Banerjee personally appealed to his party workers to ensure that the election is held in a free-and-fair manner. He even asked TMC workers to help Opposition candidates file their nomination papers if they faced any hurdles.
But the message from the TMC’s top two does not seem to have had the desired effect either within the party or outside. While more than 15 people were killed in poll-related violence in the run-up to the elections, at least 12 were killed on Saturday — seven of them being workers of the ruling party. Violence was reported from across the state — from Dinahat in Cooch Behar district in north Bengal to Lalgola and Nowda in Murshidabad district and Basanti in South 24 Parganas.
Now, it remains to be seen if the recent round of violence has an impact on the TMC’s prospects in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. It will be daunting for the ruling party, which has been fighting multiple corruption charges and plagued with arrests of its leaders.
The TMC blamed the Opposition and especially the BJP for indulging in violence against its workers. “Seven of our workers have been killed today. Who is responsible for this? The BJP, CPM and Congress have unleashed attacks on our workers. Violence was reported from some districts while polling in the rest of the state was peaceful. In a bid to gain some ground, the Opposition has indulged in violence,” said party spokesperson Kunal Ghosh.
The BJP, on the other hand, tore into the TMC and accused State Election Commission of failing to conduct the election in a free, fair and peaceful manner. Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Suvendu Adhikari said, “This is nothing but murder of democracy. The entire election must be cancelled in view of today’s incident.”
