THE 10th panchayat elections in West Bengal were marred by massive fraud, vote looting, and manipulation at the counting centres, reducing the electoral process virtually to a farce.  These can no longer be called “unprecedented” because such methods of widespread election rigging have characteriSed virtually all Bengal’s local body elections in the past decade. There is almost a consensus now that a major characteristic of the electoral process in Bengal is the incidence of pervasive rigging of elections. What is definitely new is the fact that even though a fortnight has passed after the announcement of the election results, the results are still “inconclusive” as the final declaration of results has been suspended by the order of the High Court. Weighed down with numerous allegations of vote rigging from the length and breadth of the state, the High Court has passed this interim order which, of course, is quite extraordinary.

RIGGING GALORE

Charged with safeguarding the vote was the woefully ineffectual State Election Commission which had lost the integrity, neutrality and transparency that are very central to its functioning the day the Governor had named Rajiva Sinha, former chief secretary of West Bengal, as the Commissioner. It is also common knowledge that in this state of political-criminal nexus, policemen and TMC leaders work in tandem in many areas. So it is hardly surprising that many police officers were allegedly partners in the rigging exercise while their subordinates remained mere spectators. The corporate media, as was expected, performed their assigned role in trying to revive a Trinamool/BJP binary narrative and downplaying the challenge posed by the Left and its secular allies.

Though these have certainly become a routine matter for West Bengal for every election, this time the TMC, too jittery about its losing control, has gone too far and overdone itself. There appears to be a difference of near about 4.5 lakhs in the number of votes cast and that which was counted at the gram panchayat level. Where did the extra ballots come from? Abandoned ballot papers, both stamped and unstamped, and even whole ballot boxes are still being “discovered” here and there from ponds, canals and even gutters.  Interestingly, these discarded ballot papers hardly bear the stamp on the BJP’s symbol, what is there is a stamp in favor of the anti-Trinamool and anti-BJP forces. Meddling with the votes “securely” deposited in the ballot boxes has become a special feature in these elections and now it is becoming crystal-clear that ballot-boxes had not been kept inviolate, neither at the polling booths nor at the counting centres. Video evidence and admissions submitted at court proceedings clearly highlight the administration’s complicity in such irregularities during and after the polls. Even the BDOs and SDOs, members of the executive civil service, were either lured into active connivance or intimidated into passive acquiescence.

Fifty-five people have died so far in the panchayat election violence. It is not possible to say where this number will reach in the end. Surely the Election Commission and the state government must take responsibility for this death toll. But in actuality it is the Trinomool’s desire of coercive control, its desire of capturing panchayats by any means, its desire of winning uncontested by withholding nominations or by forceful withdrawal of nominations, and its desire of illegally winning seats by manipulating the winning candidate at the counting hall – that is responsible for this sustained cult of violence. It does not end here. After that, during the formation of the panchayat bodies, the Trinamool will be trying to force the opposition candidates to change sides, creating a new wave of violence.

DISSENT AND RESISTANCE

While it is true that the entire polling process, from the day nominations started to the counting day, was hugely manipulated and there were uncountable mal-practices, still this is not the whole story. What is most significant is that the people have expressed their strong desire to restore democracy by putting up an indomitable resistance against the ruthless attacks of the regime's state-sponsored terror aided and abetted by the rogue forces of the Trinamool Congress. It is this strong desire of the people of rural Bengal that has driven them to ignore all pressures to sustain their candidature and reach the polling station on Election Day to cast their votes after years.

The general idea in Bengal today, both among the informed and uninformed, is that Trinamool has won by terrorising the people and by various forms of electoral manipulation. The trend that emerges from the poll count is that the fight to defeat Trinamool and oust BJP has gained impetus in Bengal. This fight will progress further in the coming days. The unity of the anti-BJP, anti-Trinamool Left, secular forces has been further congealed by this electoral battle. The struggle of the people of the villages was not in vain — the results have golden streaks — a sign of the future.

In these polls it has been proved once more that only the rise of the Left and nothing else can stall the march of BJP in Bengal. The trends in the results suggest that in many places, the BJP has systematically split the anti-Trinamool votes to help Mamata Banerjee's party win. Yet Left Front, Congress, ISF won a considerable number of seats defeating both Trinamool and BJP. Examples abound in districts like Nadia, Birbhum, Malda and Murshidabad. We may take for example Domkal. Trinamool won all the village panchayats in the 2018 panchayat elections in Murshidabad's Domkal subdivision. In the 2021 assembly polls, Trinamool won all the assembly seats in Domkal subdivision. Joint crackdowns by Trinamool and police grew in the villages. In the panchayat polls, Domkal people have responded fittingly to such odious tactics. Trinamool lost in Raninagar-2 block of Domkal subdivision winning only two out of nine gram panchayats in this block. Out of six gram panchayats in Raninagar- 1 block, three gram panchayats said no to Trinamool. In every booth the village people opposed the pressure tactics of Trinamool and the divisive politics of BJP. Even at the counting halls they resisted Trinamool terror successfully.

The Left Front did not get any seats in the last panchayat elections in Birbhum. In the last assembly elections, the vote share of the Left Front had continued to decrease sharply. This time Left Front, Congress and ISF fought evenly from nomination to counting. Left-Congress candidates won four panchayats. On the other hand, the BJP, which performed much better than the Left in the last panchayat polls, has been found lagging behind quite a bit.

EMERGING TRENDS

Trinamool Congress' vote share in this election so far is 51.01 per cent. Compared to 2018, this is 20.99 per cent less. BJP has got 23.06 per cent votes. It is higher than the previous panchayat elections but 14.91 per cent less than the votes polled in the 2021 assembly polls. The united platform of Left Front, Congress and ISF polled 22.30 per cent, out of which the Left Front got 14 per cent. Compared to the last panchayat and assembly polls, the Left Front's vote increase was a little more than 8 per cent.

Compared to the assembly polls, this joint platform has also increased its vote by about 12.03 per cent. In this fraudulent vote, the Left Front and its allies waged an unequal war against the Trinamool’s electoral manipulation which was patronized by the entire state administrative machinery. The most important thing is that this election result clearly indicates that the fall of the BJP in the state is possible only through the rise of the Left and not by any other means. This indication bears the direction to follow in the future.

In order to retain absolute control in the panchayat bodies, the Trinamool has engaged itself in such reckless rigging that even they themselves do not know how much real public support they have at present. Why did Trinamool have to resort to this kind of ultimate fraud, just to establish political dominance? Not at all. Absolute power is needed to sustain the tyrannical corruption cycle that Trinamool has built at the local body level to embezzle the benefits of various central and state government schemes including 100 days work, housing scheme to the real beneficiaries individually and collectively by 27 departments. That is why this level of vote looting became an urgency.

And this is exactly why, from the day after the panchayat results, leftists in rural Bengal on the one hand have been leading the people's anger against the formation of rigged panchayats, and on the other hand preparing themselves to stand in firm solidarity by the people in their ceaseless daily and seasonal struggle for life and livelihood over issues like fair distribution of “patta”, fair wages, crop prices, electricity for irrigation, NREGA dues, transparency in housing schemes, drinking water,  suitable mid day meal, etc. This struggle shall continue.