E-Paper
Bengal’s Oppn to rely on social media to highlight rural poll violence on Monday
The CPI (M) has decided to open a special control room at the party’s state committee office in central Kolkata on Monday.
Opposition parties in West Bengal are banking on social media to highlight violence which they fear could mar the crucial three-tier Bengal panchayat polls on Monday.
The CPI (M) has decided to open a special control room at the party’s state committee office in central Kolkata on Monday. The control room will be manned by Left Front chairman and party politburo member Biman Bose, CPI (M) state secretary in Bengal and politburo member Suryakanta Mishra and two CPI(M) central committee members from Bengal, Rabin Deb and Sujan Chakrabarty.
The party’s state committee has sent instructions to different district committees directing them to record incidents of violence on mobile phones and forward them to the control room.
“Our IT cell will then circulate the same through social media platforms and also forward it to state election commission for the purpose of records,” said a state committee leader who did not wish to be named.
The party suspects that violence is imminent on polling day given “the unprecedented violence that Trinamool Congress unleashed since nomination began”.
“Our comrades will resist them at booth level and highlight the same through different platforms,” said CPI (M) central committee member Rabin Deb.
Since Suryakanta Mishra will be manning the control room at Kolkata, he is unlikely to go to Narayangarh in West Midnapore district to cast his vote.
The BJP has an identical strategy. Top party leaders like BJP’s state president Dilip Ghosh and the party’s national secretary, Rahul Singh will be present at a control room at the party’s state headquarters in central Kolkata.
“They will be receiving incidences of violence video-graphed by our workers and will circulate the same. In certain booths we are in a strong position and hence we apprehend that violence by Trinamool will be maximum there on Monday,” said Sayantan Basu, BJP’s state secretary in Bengal.
The Congress said it will rely more on booth-level resistance either individually or jointly with the Left Front.
“We already have an understanding with the Left Front in Malda. While that is an official understanding, elsewhere our aim will be to be put up joint resistance against violence. If possible incidences of violence will be video- graphed and circulated,” said Congress legislator Manoj Chakraborty.
State panchayat affairs and rural development minister, Subrata Mukherjee, however, dismissed the opposition initiatives. “Our leaders and workers are with people throughout the year. We as ruling party will always seek peaceful polls. Violence, if any will be masterminded by opposition to malign us,” he said.
The run up to the panchayat elections has been bloody with all opposition parties complaining that Trinamool Congress workers did not let many of their candidates file nomination papers. The TMC has consistently denied using violence to scare away the opposition.
The state election commission had earlier said the elections will be held on three days on May 1, 3 and 5 before it decided on a single-day polling for May 14. The new date triggered allegations from opposition parties that the single-phase voting decision was taken to oblige the ruling Trinamool Congress.
