KMC Polls: Opposition Faces Intimidation Despite Abhishek Banerjee’s Warning to TMC Activists Against Violence

Kolkata: At a meeting on December 4 with the candidates fielded for Ward 144 Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) elections scheduled for December 19, Lok Sabha member and national general secretary of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) Abhishek Banerjee told them not to use their influence to win as it was essential that the elections were held in a free and fair manner. Emphasising further, Banerjee warned that if anyone did anything to stir up violence, the party would take strong action, including expulsion.

Predictably, opposition parties took Banerjee’s advice and caution to the candidates with a pinch of salt; for it has been their long-standing grievance against the ruling party that its activists take recourse to violence, intimidation and other malpractices as a result of which free and fair elections are not possible in the state. Therefore, the advice and warning of Banerjee, who is the nephew of the chief minister and party supremo Mamata Banerjee, who herself holds charge of the home department, did not generate hope in the opposition ranks.

But, in political quarters and in the media, the matter became a subject of discussion, with the main question being what made the nephew, who is second-in-command in the party, say what he did in his meeting with the candidates.

The general impression is that it is an image make-over exercise, given that the leadership had to concede they had failed to check malpractices of the party activists in the 2018 panchayat elections. Twenty thousand TMC nominees had won without contest and for 34% of the total 60,000 seats, the opposition candidates could not file nominations. Then, the large-scale violence that followed the Assembly elections in March-April this year has become the subject of court intervention, investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation and probe by a special investigation team. On top of this, a fine of five lakh rupees was imposed on the chief minister by the High Court judge assigned to hear her election petition and against whom she had levelled charges.

The nephew’s exercise has been timed with Mamata’s stepped up attempts to play a larger role in national politics and gain acceptance as the leader who can lead the political fight against the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance government at the Centre.

The campaign is in full swing, but ground realities do not suggest that the second-in-command’s fiat is being followed by the workers and leaders fielded by the TMC leadership to organise the campaign. Opposition leaders speaking to NewsClick spoke said that in many wards their display materials – banners, flex and posters – were either being removed or being torn apart. TMC seems to have changed its tactics. State committee member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) Shamik Lahiri, who is leading the campaign in several wards, said apart from removing and damaging publicity materials TMC people were visiting voters at their homes and suggesting they better skip voting. “Does TMC believe in democracy? If it did it would have behaved. Given its election time record, we do not give any credence to what the nephew said," Lahiri told NewsClick.

State secretary of the Communist Party of India Swapan Banerjee believed that the ruling party had changed tactics, with incidences of visible violence being less. However, he added that because of their intimidation, “our workers are finding it difficult to freely move around and engage in campaigning," Banerjee observed. General secretary of the Revolutionary Socialist Party of India Manoj Bhattacharya said the election would be held under the watch of the state police, “much against our wish. We know the state police personnel will not be impartial,” Bhattacharya told NewsClick.

Vice-president of state BJP unit Pratap Banerjee, when asked about the ground situation, said: “Have we seen free and fair elections during the TMC regime? The TMC general secretary’s reported advice and warning to party candidates are not worth taking note of,” Banerjee added.

According to state Congress general secretary Manoj Chakraborty, prima facie it appears that the TMC leaders are realising that recurring incidents of violence are tarnishing the party’s image. It remains to be seen if the TMC workers pay any heed to the leader’s message. In this context, it may be pointed out that, perhaps, for the first time since TMC came to power in May 2011, some councilors and aspirants who have not been renominated/nominated have protested the selection committee’s decision and filed nomination papers as independent candidates.

Meanwhile, among the many civic issues faced by the people in the city, the ones that require attention on a priority basis are: waterlogging whenever there are heavy spells of rains, mosquito menace, shortage of drinking water supply during summer, freeing footpaths of hawkers and their rehabilitation, a large number of unsafe buildings, the inadequacy of detection centres for vector-borne diseases, acute shortage of night shelters for the poor and the needy and systematic, continuous mauling of environment-friendly wetlands by realtors ‘who are adept in enlisting the cooperation of councilors and bureaucrats’. The aftermath of super cyclone Amphan in 2020 had seen disruption in water and electricity supply for days together in several areas and residents venting their ire against the civic authorities.

The manifestos of TMC, BJP, Left Front and Congress do mention action plans to tackle these issues and thereby ensure improved civic services on a sustainable basis. The steps listed are usual: toning up drainage, sewerage and pumping station infrastructure; raise in the number of detection/treatment centres for vector-borne diseases, better repair and maintenance of roads, augmenting supply of treated, piped drinking water and development of slums.

Preservation of wetlands and stopping their mauling by a builder-politician-bureaucrat nexus are not specifically mentioned, but a liberal view may justify an inference that pledges to address environmental concerns covers this aspect too.

There are some novel proposals in each of the manifestos. For example, the ruling party wants to create accessible infrastructure for physically challenged persons, including the installation of ramps and handrails along with Braille signage in public places. It has promised to build SHE toilet complexes in every ward. The BJP document talks of a sports centre at the Maidan, ten smog towers to fight pollution, a unified smart card for the Metro, linking it with tram and bus services and rehabilitation of hawkers under the PM Svanidhi Scheme.

The Left Front has come out with an e-version, in addition to the printed one. A minimum wage of Rs 327 under the 100-day work scheme, creation of a municipal vigilance authority in whose website floated tenders with budget details will be posted. This, in its view, will help check corrupt practices which in the TMC regime has gained notoriety as cut-money culture.

The Congress manifesto speaks of the party’s aim of gradual switch-over to solar power in place of conventional electricity, introduction of advanced technology for solid waste management, incentives for rainwater harvesting and conditional waiver of property tax. Perhaps, an element of competition may be read into the manifestos of the Left Front and the Congress on the issue of filling up of an estimated 28,000 vacancies in the civic body – while the Congress has proposed to do so in two years the Left Front wants to do that in one year.

The KMC elections were due in 2020 but could not be held because of the COVID-19 pandemic. There are close to 40.5 lakh voters and 950 candidates are in the fray in the 144 wards. The results will be declared on December 21. TMC has been in control of the civic body for over 10 years.

The writer is a Kolkata-based senior freelance journalist. The views are personal.