Solidarity with the People of West Bengal Struggling for Democracy
The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement on July 12
THE Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) is outraged at the developments in West Bengal in the wake of the counting process of the votes cast by the people for the three-tier panchayats in the state. The state administration and the state Election Commission, acting in complicity with the ruling party, engaged in large-scale falsification of the choice exercised by the people, violating the orders of the State Election Commission. There was open violation of directions of the High Court.
In a zilla parishad seat in the Bhangar area, the election officials reversed the result where the Left supported opposition ISF candidate won with a huge margin and announced a TMC candidate as elected. This led to a massive popular protest, upon which the police resorted to indiscriminate firing resulting in the death of four people. Subsequently, a reign of terror has been unleashed by the police and the entire area is virtually inaccessible.
The Bhangar incident symbolises the large-scale vitiation of results. The state Election Commission website was deactivated and the counting process was slowed down facilitating such reversal of results. The results for the panchayat samiti and zilla parishad have no legitimacy because the counting was held in the dead of the night forcing the counting agents of Left and the other secular forces out of the counting centre. Such is the scale of irregularity that large number of ballots stamped in favour of the CPI(M) have been recovered outside counting centres which, obviously, were not considered in the counting process.
The pattern of manipulation clearly establishes that the vitiation of the process was undertaken to ensure the victory of the TMC and push the BJP to the second position despite a completely different ground reality.
This farce of elections making a mockery of democracy has led the Calcutta High Court which issued an interim order, today, to stay the publication of results.
The Polit Bureau expresses its solidarity with the Left, Congress, ISF and other secular forces who are engaged in a life and death battle for restoring democracy against the TMC and the BJP and urges the democratic-minded people of the country to stand with the people of West Bengal at this grim juncture.
