Bengal Panchayat Polls: Unlike 2018, Left Workers Resist ‘TMC Violence’ Across Districts, File Nominations

Kolkata: The nomination process for West Bengal panchayat elections began on Friday, June 9. After Saturday, the State Election Commission prohibited publishing the number of nominations filed thus far. So, there is no way to determine how many nominations were filed till Monday, June 12.

However, the situation this time is very different from 2018, when Opposition candidates were intimidated and prevented from filing nominations. This time round, the Left is putting up a frontal resistance in every district against intimidation and violence allegedly bythe ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) workers.

In a post on Facebook, Communist Party of India (Marxist) state secretary Mohd Salim wrote, "2018 and 2023 are not the same."

Prior to the 2018 elections, TMC won over 20,000 panchayat seats. In the three-tier panchayat polls, only candidates from the ruling party filed nomination and were elected unopposed in 34% of the seats. This is "recorded" in the state's history of panchayat elections.

Allegations of "unbridled violence" were made against the state's ruling party. The Opposition claimed they were forbidden from submitting their nominations. Some nominations were filed but were withdrawn. During the voting process, too, the state bled, raising questions about the role of the state police.

In 2018, out of a total of 825 seats in the zilla parishad, voting was held in 621 seats. Out of 9,217 panchayat samiti constituencies, 6,119 constituencies went to polls, and out of 48,650-gram panchayat constituencies, 31,789 constituencies went to polls.

Significantly, out of 31,789 seats, the Left candidates hold only 16,699 seats. Congress candidates hold 5,497 seats, and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidates hold 22,637 seats. However, TMC fielded candidates in 31,709 seats.

This year, the picture of the first three days of nominations is completely different. There are reports of scattered clashes in districts over the submission of nominations, but there are also reports of Left candidates submitting their nominations by putting up resistance in many places.

This year, while the Left is trying taking to the streets and putting up direct resistance, the BJP is knocking the doors of the court. This clearly indicates the lack of organisation in BJP at the grassroots level.

Till Monday, the CPI(M) has already filed nominations for 90 of the 166 gram panchayat constituencies in Block 2 of Barakpur in North 24 Parganas district.

Nominations were submitted for most of the gram panchayat and panchayat samiti seats in all blocks, including Jalpaiguri Sadar, Mainaguri, Rajganj, and Malbazar in Jalpaiguri district, on Monday.

On Monday morning, the TMC tried to stop the Left workers from proceeding to file nominations by parking tractors and dumpers on the road near Barashul in the Burdwan-2 block of East Burdwan district. The Left activists countered the obstruction and the two sides clashed. Despite the attack on Barashul, the Left candidates submitted their nominations in Raina-1, Katwa-1, and Memori-2 blocks of the East Burdwan district.

Alleged TMC workers also attacked Left candidates when they went to submit their nominations at Nanur in Birbhum. But once again, the Left candidates resisted and submitted their nominations