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Bengal panchayat elections: Row heats up, governor says no room for violence
The filing of nominations ended on Friday after the Calcutta high court extended the process by a day, allowing people who couldn’t submit their papers by the state election commission (SEC)-mandated deadline of June 15.
West Bengal governor CV Ananda Bose warned on Friday that no violence will be tolerated in the run-up to the local body polls as chief minister Mamata Banerjee blamed the Opposition for stoking clashes during the filing of nominations for the high-stakes panchayat elections, a day after four people were killed in clashes across the state.
The filing of nominations ended on Friday after the Calcutta high court extended the process by a day, allowing people who couldn’t submit their papers by the state election commission (SEC)-mandated deadline of June 15. The ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) fielded 85,817 candidates for the July 8 polls, followed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with 56,321 nominations, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) with 48,648 and Congress with 17,750, the SEC announced.
The filing of nominations began on June 9but was marred by incidents of violence, which peaked on Thursday, when four people were killed in clashes in north Bengal and Bhangore in the south.
Bose visited Bhangore on Friday.
“No violence would be tolerated. Whoever has resorted to violence would be brought to book and would be shown their place behind the bars. There will be action and not an alibi for inaction,” he told reporters.
Empty shells of bullets and crude bombs could be seen strewn in the villages. White patch marks on black metalled-roads and charred jute strings were reminders of crude bombs that were hurled indiscriminately after clashes broke out between the TMC and the Indian Secular Force.
“I saw some places where unfortunate incidents of violence had taken place. I could interact with some of the victims and the local people. This is fact finding data gathering period for me. I have made my own inferences. I would like to take further action based upon objective analysis of what I have seen, heard analysed and experienced,” Bose added.
Speaking in the South 24 Parganas, Banerjee hit back.
“Show me one state, having so many panchayat booths, where nomination has bene so peaceful ever in the past. The Bhangore incident was done by some goons. We have lost two men. The TMC didn’t trigger the Bhangore violence,” Banerjee said.
She also said that there were more than 60,000 booths, but violence was reported from only two. “Thursday was the last day of nominations. More than 2.31 lakh nominations were filed. TMC is the ruling party and is fighting alone. We are contesting in 82,000 seats. The opposition parties together have filed more than 1.5 lakh nominations. Still they are alleging their candidates were not being allowed to file nominations,” Banerjee added.
One more death was reported from Murshidabad late on Thursday night. A village-level TMC leader Mojammal Sheikh was killed and a few others injured in a clash allegedly between TMC and Congress workers. In all, the nomination period saw at least fivedeaths.
State BJP president Sukanta Majumdar sent a letter to Union home minister Amit Shah, seeking his intervention.
“I urge you to expedite the deployment of central forces as per the Calcutta high court order to maintain law and order and to prevent any further incidents of violence or disruption,” Majumdar wrote in the letter.
On Thursday, the high court had ordered the deployment of central forces all over the state till the elections end. Nawasad Siddique, the ISF’s lone legislator, said he moved the high court seeking a National Investigation Agency probe into the Bhangore clashes.
Violence and elections in Bengal have had an unfortunate relationship dating back decades. In 2018, for example, at least 20 murders were reported . Therefore, it is the responsibility of the election authorities, as well as the state government, to ensure free-and-fair polls.
