AT the end of the third phase of polling, it can be said that Sanjukta Morcha is on the march. The malicious and scandalous allegations that Trinamool Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party have been hurling at each other for the past few months, have nettled the ordinary people, who have been fighting a grim battle for survival for the last one year, ever since the unplanned lockdown was shoved down their throat. Neither the TMC nor the BJP has addressed any of the burning issues plaguing the daily lives of the working class. Each has been busy, besides tossing accusations at the other, in arrogating each other’s MPs, MLAs and other sundry leaders.  The toiling masses who have been cheated and deprived of their rightful claims are looking to the Sanjukta Morcha for respite.

In the last panchayat elections held in 2018, people of the villages of Bengal were denied their right to franchise. Candidates of the opposition parties were not allowed to file their nomination by the gangsters of the TMC. They were threatened, beaten up and every kind of impediment was used to thwart their efforts at filing of nomination. Vulnerable ordinary voters were intimidated using every single tool in their possession, including bombs and bullets, to stop the former from casting their votes. There was widespread bloodshed, death of political workers from opposing camps, women were intimidated, chastened and humiliated publicly. An atmosphere of fear was deliberately created to keep people away from the polling booth. Of the 48,650 posts in gram panchayats, 825 posts in zilla parishads and 9,217 posts in panchayat samitis, nearly 34 per cent of the seats had only one candidate contesting the elections: one who represented the TMC.

Three years later, the voters have not forgotten the nightmare of mass rigging, ineffable violence and the use of brute force by the reprobates of TMC. Added to this is the resentment against the leaders and other office-bearers of the ruling party for depriving them of what is lawfully theirs, rampant corruption and tyrannical hooliganism. The anti-incumbency against TMC is palpable on the ground.

During the ongoing elections, TMC, sensing that they are fighting a losing battle, did try to resort to their known coercive tactics of bullying, hounding and intimidating, only this time they were met with stiff resistance from the local people. People who had been denied their right to vote for the last ten years were determined to frustrate every effort of the goons of the TMC. Helped and aided by the members and supporters of Sanjukta Morcha, ordinary people living in remote villages of Bengal have stood up to the arm twisting tactics of TMC and have forced them to beat a hasty retreat. Wherever attempts were made to intimidate the polling agents of the Morcha, the Morcha candidates, along with her/his supporters and general public, made sure that the polling agent could reach the polling station and perform her/his duties till the very end. This resistance to the brow-beating of the ruling party has been possible only because of the immense support of the people that Morcha has been able to garner in the last few months.

Women voters, who have been easy prey to TMC’s fear-mongering in past elections, marshalled their courage this time, looked into the eyes of the miscreants, and told them that they would cast their votes no matter what the consequences.
Another first that has been achieved this time, after almost a decade, is that, Left Front could position polling agents in every single booth in the first three phases of the ongoing elections. Even the ruling TMC and the omnipotent BJP could not arrange polling agents for all the booths. This, in itself, is a glowing sign of how much ground the Morcha has been able to cover in the last few months. It has been successful in instilling a sense of security in the minds of the people of Bengal. People are depending on Sanjukta Morcha to help them cast their vote. They are banking on the Morcha to lead them to a new dawn.