WEST Bengal witnessed another mockery of ‘elections’ in four municipal corporations, where TMC gangs looted hundreds of booths with the help of the state administration and police. Elections to four municipal corporations – Siliguri, Bidhannagar, Chandannagar and Asansol took place on February 12. In two of them, rampant rigging and booth capturing forced thousands of voters to stay indoors and the outsiders seizing voting centres.

In Asansol, coal mafia brigade along with the TMC goons and police attacked opposition candidates and workers, surrounded areas, fired to chase away voters and captured nearly 300 booths. CPI(M) polling agents, including women agents were attacked and many of them were forced to come out of the booths. In some areas of Raniganj and Jamuria, people put up brave resistance and fought pitched battle with armed gangs. The State Election Commission and observers were mute spectators.

In Bidhannagar, adjacent to Kolkata, outsiders began to gather days before the voting day. Lodges and guest houses were full of such outsiders who were brought from different areas of the state. On the voting day, they surrounded booths from the morning, finally freely entering booths in gangs and any semblance of fair voting was thrown away. Journalists covering the elections were roughed up and their cameras were broken. Roughnecks ran amok terrorising voters, polling agents and even the candidates. The loot was so all pervasive that even dead persons ‘voted’ for the TMC. Renowned singer late Dwijen Mukherjee’s vote was also cast. The severity of the loot has been reflected in the results. 17 TMC candidates got more than 80 per cent votes in their wards. Some of them even got 96 per cent, 94 per cent, and 92 per cent votes in wards. The elections were bull-dozed and a manufactured verdict was foisted on the people residing in these municipal corporations. This ‘loot-storm’ is the core of the so-called ‘Green storm’ in the state.

The so-called ‘liberal’ face of Mamata Banerjee is now being unmasked in 108 municipalities which are scheduled for voting on February 27. Every possible impediment was put up by the ruling party to stop candidates belonging to opposition parties, including those from the Left Front, from filing their nominations. The TMC MLA from Dinhata in Cooch Behar district in North Bengal, Udayan Guha, declared from a public rally that all those who did not vote for the TMC would be dished out “Duare Prohaar” (flogging at doorsteps). He then went on to personally supervise the hooligans of the TMC who prevented the LF candidates from submitting their nomination papers. Their nomination papers were snatched away and torn to bits in front of police officials who stood as mute spectators. Three candidates were kidnapped by the evil-forces who were later rescued by the police. The municipality is already won by the TMC without contest. At Budge Budge municipality, in South 24 Parganas district, similar treatment was handed out to the candidates of the LF. Out of the 20 wards in this municipality, which lies in the chief minister’s nephew’s parliamentary constituency, opposition parties could file their nomination papers in only eight wards. In the rest of the 12 wards, the blackguards of TMC prevented the candidates from filing their nominations. The bike gangs of the TMC surrounded the houses of the LF candidates to prevent them from filing nominations. A gang of about 100 bikers criss-crossed Budge Budge and threatened LF candidates with firearms and asked them not to file their nominations. TMC was able to seize Suri, Sainthia, Dubrajpur – all in Birbhum district – uncontested, by flexing their muscles and resorting to forcible withdrawal of opposition candidates. Those in other municipalities are facing terror, attacks in houses, kidnapping of relatives, and constant threat through mobile phones.

Despite these attacks, the Left Front has been able to increase their vote share, in comparison to assembly elections in four corporations. In Chandannagar, LF vote increased nearly 10 per cent to 28 per cent, compared to 18 per cent in 2021 assembly elections. In this corporation, 12 LF candidates got 30 per cent to 49 per cent votes, though they could win only one seat. In four others the difference is razor thin. In Bidhannagar LF got 11 per cent, nearly 4 per cent more than in 2021. In Siliguri, LF got 18 per cent, increasing by 2 per cent than in 2021. However, LF won in Siliguri in 2015, but won four seats this time.

Another discernible feature is the drastic reduction of BJP’s votes. In Siliguri, they came down from 50 per cent to 23 per cent; in Asansol, from 44 per cent to 17 per cent; in Chandannagar from 30 per cent to 9 per cent. In Bidhannagar BJP’s vote share came down from 41 per cent to 8 per cent.