It is for the first time that the BJP has been elected at the gram panchayat level in every district of the state.
The only other election news in recent times apart from the Karnataka Assembly elections have been that of Bengal panchayat elections, marred by violence, deaths and intimidation. The panchayat elections in Bengal have regularly witnessed violence since the 1980s. However, the scale of the violence has significantly increased this time. A reflection of this trend can be seen in the data given by the State Election Commission (SEC) regarding the number of unopposed winners. While in 2003, 2008 and 2013, the winners who did not have to face any contest were 11%, 5.57% and 10.66% respectively, the figure has drastically increased to around 34%, which amounts to over 19,000 seats, in 2018.
According to an appeal by lawyer Pradeep Chakraborty to the Kolkata High Court, pleading for rejection of the entire panchayat polls, a total of 24 deaths in violence are reported, apart from around 150 injured, of which 60 are in serious condition. The legitimacy of the election process has been challenged, politically and in the courts, also by the parties in opposition to the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC). The Supreme Court has directed the State Election Commissioner to withhold declaring the results for nearly 20,000 seats where the Trinamool Congress won uncontested.
The SEC has failed to function as an autonomous agency established by the Constitution of India, “vested” with the role of “superintendence, direction and control of the entire process for conduct of elections to the panchayats and municipal bodies”. The presence of gangs of TMC operatives manning the gates of government offices and assaults on the media, including wrongful detention of journalists, indicate the degree to which the election process has been compromised.
‘TMC’S ‘DEVELOPMENT IMPACT’
The ruling TMC later had a massive victory and won in 90% of all the seats. A jubilant TMC said the result would boost the party ahead of next year’s Lok Sabha elections as the rural poll was the last major electoral event in the state before it. In other words, the TMC has gained a literally unprecedented stranglehold over rural self-government institutions.
Without condoning wanton violence in any form, it must be accepted that a large part of the rural electorate in Bengal does admire policies like Kanyashree (cycles and education to the girl-child), Sastho-bandhu (healthcare for the poor), and making of rural roads and schools. Add to these the TMC government’s patronage to local clubs, madrasas, imams, and now pujaris also added, et al, which have all paid it rich electoral dividends.
‘BJP’S ‘ENTRY IN RURAL BENGAL’
Even before the panchayat polls, BJP was already on the rise in vote-share in Bengal and at the cost of CPM and Congress, while TMC has been increasing its vote share and maintaining its lead all throughout.
According to a senior state BJP leader, it is for the first time that the party has been elected at the gram panchayat level in every district of the state. Clearly, these polls were a litmus test for the BJP before it goes for the big haul in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Amit Shah’s strategy has always been treating Bengal’s rural polls as the “quarter-final match” before the 2021 Assembly elections. Taking on the organisational strategy of the Marxists, Shah asked Bengal BJP leaders to spread out to the state’s 77,000-odd polling booths.
In Nadia, parts of East and West Midnapore and Burdwan districts, the unimaginable has happened; at the grassroots, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the CPM have quietly closed ranks against the TMC, though this has been officially denied by the CPM. The pattern of quiet collaboration by parties that are not officially partners has taken place, with the Congress and CPM working together in Malda and Murshidabad districts.
It is clear today that the TMC has used violence to scare away the CPM and knowingly or otherwise, has made room for the BJP to make a more forcible entry in Bengal’s hinterland. Ironically, the BJP is perceived by some CPM managers as a powerful party with whom a tacit understanding will serve to protect candidates and supporters from the violence of the ruling TMC.
‘LEFT-CONGRESS BONHOMIE’
After the Bengal panchayat polls, the state is looking at a new political landscape in which a pulverised Left has been replaced by the BJP. The most significant feature of the final outcome of West Bengal’s panchayat elections is not the fact that the TMC won. The true significance lies in what happened to other parties. The situation today is that without an official pre-poll alliance between the Left and Congress, both will be simply washed out in any future elections in Bengal. Already in several districts, both unofficially cooperated with each other. The last CPM Politburo meeting concluded in favour of an all out unity against Hindutva politics. So, once dead enemies, Left and Congress will see the Yechurian principle of bonhomie between the two grow in flesh and blood.
‘NATIONAL OPPOSITION UNITY’
Electorally speaking, next year’s parliamentary elections are what all parties are waiting for. The context is provided by the TMC’s clear objective of winning all 42 Lok Sabha seats. It is difficult to see, as things stand, any outcome other than the TMC winning an overwhelming majority of the seats. From the outset, it seems clear that the CPM will win nothing after the two it managed to win in 2014.
Last time, the Congress won four out of five seats in Malda and Murshidabad. It’s pretty certain that it won’t be able to repeat that feat.
It belongs, then, to the BJP to spoil the Trinamool Congress’ party. In 2014, the party won from two constituencies. One of them was Darjeeling, which is not relevant in this context since there are no panchayats in the hills. The second was Asansol. The ruling party has rolled the BJP over in this area. But the BJP has made unexpected and significant gains in tribal-dominated areas of the three districts of Bankura, Jhargram and Purulia. It has almost matched the Trinamool in Purulia, the only district in which the opposition has aggregated more seats than the ruling party as far as gram panchayat seats go.
If there is a TMC-Left-Congress united opposition to BJP in the Lok Sabha polls, as is the attempt of one school of thought with the blessings of Lalu Yadav, H.D. Deve Gowda and even Sitaram Yechury, there will be a clean sweep of Bengal by this trinity, which, in any case, is not an easy thing to evolve in the first place.
BENGAL TOMORROW
The 2018 panchayat elections in West Bengal seem set to make history, for the wrong reasons. The interventions by the Supreme Court and the Calcutta High Court, the capitulation of the SEC to pressure from the government, the unprincipled collaborations of sworn political enemies for electoral gains, the capsize of the police and the administration have sucked the legitimacy and credibility out of the process and eroded the idea of free choice and peaceful participation. It seems the saga of electoral violence in Bengal is here to stay.
The panchayat elections were held a year ahead of the 2019 general elections. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has been trying to become the fulcrum to unite all that forces that are opposed to the BJP and hence wanted to have an opposition-mukt panchayat elections to cement her standing ahead of next year.
Prof Ujjwal K. Chowdhury is the School Head, School of Media, Pearl Academy, Delhi & Mumbai. He has been the former Dean of Symbiosis and Amity Universities. Opinions expressed here are strictly his personal.