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Journalism of Courage
Sitting on a bed on the third floor of the BJP party office in Baruipur, Hilol Patra (27) and Gobindo Naskar (50), gram panchayat candidates from Amlamethi and Keurhat villages respectively, rue how the time they should be spending on the campaign trail is being spent in hiding instead.
About 45 km away, at Minakhan village in South 24 Parganas, school teacher and CPI(M)’s zilla parishad candidate Pradyut Roy hasn’t ventured out of his home for days, not even to the local market.
With West Bengal panchayat polls scheduled for July 8, Patra, Naskar and Roy are among hundreds of candidates who, fearing for their safety and that of their families, are taking shelter in party offices-turned-safehouses or lying low at home.
The Indian Express met candidates in North and South 24 Parganas, and at a party headquarters in Kolkata, and they spoke of an atmosphere of terror and intimidation, pointing fingers at the ruling TMC. Some cited the examples of 11 people killed in different parts of the state ever since panchayat polls were announced on June 8.
The TMC says the allegations against it are baseless, with some leaders also pointing out that a majority of those killed were from their party.
“These are preposterous and baseless allegations made by the Opposition clan, who have clearly joined hands – BJP, CPI(M), Congress and a very dangerous party, ISF. We are saying these are baseless because this time, an unprecedented number of nominations have been filed by political parties – more than 2.3 lakh, the highest in West Bengal’s political history. The opposition parties together filed 1.5 times more nominations than the TMC,” said party leader Jayprakash Majumder. “The Opposition knows that despite filing such a large number of nominations, they will face a huge defeat. So they are preparing excuses and creating a narrative of violence.”
But Patra, the BJP candidate, recalls filing his nomination on June 20 and finding out soon after that goons were looking for him. “I took my phone, charger, some clothes and fled my village. My father kept receiving threat calls. I stayed at a relative’s home, and was told by party leaders the next day that I could take shelter at the office. I fear I will be killed if I return; I worry about my parents and brother, who are at home. Elections are not on my mind anymore. We also own a small boat; I pray they don’t damage it,” said Patra who, apart from being a BJP youth wing leader, works as a helper in a local shop.
Naskar, a harmonium player in a Harinam Sankirtan (troupe that plays, chants religious songs on the streets), said: “After nominations, about 200 people surrounded my house. I hid in a local jungle and fled the next morning. It is impossible to campaign; I am worried about my wife and son.”
Apart from a dormitory and five rooms, the BJP office where the two are holed up has a common toilet and a canteen. Local leaders claim they have offered refuge to roughly 70 candidates so far, although when The Indian Express visited the most, most were out.
Around 74,000 seats will go to polls in the three-tier polls – across gram panchayats, panchayat samitis and zila parishads. The TMC already has a significant advantage, with no Opposition candidate filing their nomination in around 10 per cent of the seats. In the 2018 panchayat polls, the party won 34 per cent of the seats uncontested.
‘A whisper campaign’
About 10 km away from the BJP’s Baruipur office, a group of CPI(M) candidates gathered at the residence of local party leader Sufal Paul in Chandpur village. According to them, out of the 22 gram panchayat seats in Kanganberia, the party could field candidates in 18. “Even this is a big feat since in most areas, the party candidates faced threats and terror tactics,” Paul said, adding that many of those contesting are first-timers.
Among them is Bharati Dolui (53), an ICDS worker in the village. “I come from a family of Leftists. The question now is whether people will be allowed to vote. In 2018, they were not,” Dolui said.
Swapna Pal (49), another candidate, claimed she is “being followed”. “We are all scared. We have families you know. I was at an immunisation camp today and they (TMC workers) were watching me. They must have thought I would campaign there,” said Swapna, who lives with her husband and son.
Sharmila Mollah (34), who was there with her husband and daughter, said they were “under pressure to withdraw”. “We are being told not to campaign, to be absent on poll day. But some villagers and my family support me. Let us see what happens,” said Sharmila, whose father Ashraf Sheikh is also a CPI(M) gram panchayat candidate.
“We cannot campaign the way we wanted, but we are doing a whisper campaign. Central forces should be in adequate numbers and man the booths on polling day. If they are guided by state police, I fear the polls will not be free and fair,” said Ashraf.
About a minute’s walk from Paul’s residence is the local CPI(M) party office, which workers claimed was ransacked in 2011 after the TMC came to power, and set on fire in 2016.
Roughly 5 km away, inside a roadside CPI(M) party office, zila parishad candidate Agnesh Mondol said she and her family have not returned home since the 2011 Assembly polls. “After the results, TMC did not allow us to go back. This time, after I submitted my nominations at the District Magistrate’s office, they offered me money and rehabilitation if I withdrew. I refused. My elder son told me, ‘we have suffered so much, why bow now’,” said Agnesh, who lives with her husband and two sons at a rented apartment nearby.
‘Police ran, so did we’
In Minakhan village, BJP gram panchayat candidate Saraju Ari alleged that not just “goons”, but also the “police and a section of administration are working for the ruling party”.
“We could file just two nominations for 28 gram panchayat seats in Minakhan. CPI(M) members failed to file nominations too. I approached the High Court for security, else we cannot campaign,” said Saraju, who is also the party’s mahila morcha president in the village. Like some others The Indian Express spoke to, she said they approached the local police with their complaint but no action was taken.
Her sister-in-law Pampa Ari, who is also contesting this time, said they have been relying on neighbours to bring them essentials. She said she tried contesting in 2018 too but was pressured to withdraw.
About 10 minutes away is the local CPI(M) party office that was ransacked on June 12, and workers allegedly beaten up when they tried to file nominations.
“About 400 TMC workers and others surrounded the office. They even threw our bicycles in the local pond. Police slapped cases against us,” said Pradyut Roy, who is one of the two zila parishad candidates who managed to submit their nominations.
“We appealed to the Calcutta High Court, yet the police did not help. TMC is scared that if we are allowed to contest, we will win.”
At the BJP state headquarters in Kolkata, the first floor is now home to 50 candidates, who sleep on bedding neatly laid out on the floor.
“The Calcutta High Court had ordered that police escort us to the BDO office, but the route was blocked and miscreants lobbed crude bombs. The police ran away and so did we. Later, we managed to submit our nominations with the SDO, but we can no longer return to our village,” said Pratap Bar, the BJP zila parishad candidate and resident of Ghotihara village in Kalinagar, North 24 Parganas.
Kalpana Halder (39) said she fled her house after filing her nomination from Bansiddhi Kalinagar gram panchayat in South 24 Parganas.
“My husband is a mason and I have three daughters. I am worried about them. But I want to take this to its logical conclusion,” she said.
