Rigging and Violence in Corporation and Municipal Elections in Bengal:

The recently concluded Bengal Municipal and Corporation elections apparently resulted in a major victory for Mamta Banerjee led Trinamool Government,  To discuss more about the issues. Newsclick Interviewed Prabir Purkayastha.   Even the mainstream media conceded that the Trinamool victory was achieved through rigging, booth capturing and violence. Leaders of opposition party such as Rupa Bagchi, the leader of the CPI(M) in Kolkata Corporation, were threatened on election day; former Minister, Kanti Ganguly and his son were physically attacked and injured. Though this time, there was some resistance, it was not enough to stop the rigging, given the completely partisan role of the administration and the police. At some places like Siliguri, a limited unity to stop booth capturing by getting together all the opposition parties succeeded in stopping Trinamool thugs from capturing the polling booths.. 

The other part of the municipal and coloration elections is that BJP's strength has give back to its figure of 15-16%, which it probably always had in Bengal. BJPs' claim to have  more than 55 lakh members proved to be a sham as they could win only few seats. 

Pranjal: Hello and welcome to Newsclick. Today, we are going to discuss about the recently concluded municipal and corporation elections in West Bengal. There have been news about mass rigging and booth capturing. To discuss the issue we have with us political commentator Prabir Purkayastha. Hello Prabir. We have seen in the newspapers and news channels that Trinamul has adopted various policies like booth capturing, mass rigging and voters were stopped to go to the booth and caste their votes against Trinamul.

Prabir: Well, they were afraid of the coming future elections which is going to take place in 2016 the assembly elections and they wanted to give a picture that they were in complete control of the electorates. So therefore, the needs for these results to show that Trinamul is in complete control. Therefore, they felt that this could not be achieved without their 'manipulating' the voters. It manifested this time in a very very open and brutal capturing of booths, attack on the other opposition parties, most of their voting polling agents were thrown out of their booths. Certain areas which were known to be for the opposition were left were also the areas which were heavily targeted. So it was not that all the places were captured. It's that selectively those placed where the left had a concentration were the places where the booth capturing took place amass. By 12 'O' clock, more or less these areas the polling agents had been thrown out and the voting was really 'one sided'. Let's put it in this way. Interesting part is for the first time, the Bengali media at least has registered the fact that this was a unique election even the normal excuse used to give that Trinamul is doing what CPM was doing earlier was not given this time. They have admitted that this is a one sided election in which booth capturing took place, administration is totally partial, these are not central forces, these are under the election commission and the final comment about the election is what the election commissioner himself have said who has said this is not an election conducted under the normal conditions.  So that's the part of it. I think the interesting and the real issue is why the Trinamul, it might have won the elections anyway may not be on this scale but might have won it anyway, why would they resort to this kind of open and blatant capturing of the booths and so on. I think that's an important question that needs to be understood that this is basically the fact that Trinamul feels that the people are slipping away from them and therefore, they don't want this weakness to be exposed before the 2016 elections.

Pranjal: You have talked about the role of state machinery. We have seen the election commission hascertain powers to influence the voting patterns to insure there is a democratic way of election which takes place which clearly is missing in these elections. I mean what's the role the election commission had to play the role in this entire fiasco that has happened?

Prabir: In the parliamentary and assembly elections, the election commission has a bigger role. In these elections, the election commission does not have the kind of role it has in the assembly or parliamentary elections. But even then, we have found that in 2014 elections the election commission play a partisan role or relatively kept out of confronting the Trinamul even when the clear case is that of rigging etc. which were taking place and again it is selective concentrated in the area where the Left had strength so that constituency by constituency they could get the majorities because they rigged in a certain part of a constituency and election commission went more or less went along with that because they accepted the kind of officials who have been deputed for that. There was a confrontation between Mamta and election commission on that but finally this has to went along with Mamta's handpicked candidates for police officers, administrative district magistrates and so on. So this was there was at least some tension at the time between election commission and the state government. But in corporation and municipal elections there is no central deployment of forces so therefore, the  forces that are deployed totally under the state government and we saw what role they played. They essentially kept out everything even when Rupa Bagchi, candidates the well known Rupa Ganguly the BJP films and television serial star. They would be physically attacked, Kanti Ganguly a former minister was physically attacked. The partisan role of the administration was very clear.

Pranjal: You have been talking about how there were specific areas where Left had a strong hold and that was attacked. In this elections there were various constituencies where Left was not in good position. But still they have been able to perform well. What are those constituencies and how has Left replied back to these attacks and how have resisted it?

Prabir: Well, look at the larger picture. Out of the 92 places that went to polls 72 are today held by Trinamul. Out of the constituencies where the Left has won or nearly won, Trinamool has nearly won or Left has won, there are specific constituencies where the Left has won. About I think rest, which is roughly about 16 to 17 are really hung corporations, hung municipal bodies. So there has been some shall we say some improvement the kind of tally that the Left had in terms of voting share where Left seems to have got 28 percent of the votes. If we take away the votes that were not polled forcibly by the other side, probably the Left vote is today in this will be between 30 to 35 percent the figures probably closer to 32 – 33- 34 percent. So that's the kind of figures we are looking at. The Trinamul figures would have come down to about 40 to 44 percent may be 45 percent that's where the figures are. So this is the Trinamul fear that the gap between the Left and itself Trinamul is may be in the range of 5 to 10 percent. That means a 5 percent swing away for Trinamul means the Trinamul is in the danger of loosing the West Bengal in the Assembly elections and that as some of the unnamed sources have been telling papers like Ananda Bazar is what is 'Sarbonash' or what is the debacle in front of it staring at and this was the driving reason for them to really try and show that there is no resistance to Trinamul that was the message that they wanted to pass.

Pranjal: Since 2014 Loksabha elections also we have seen this mass rigging happening in West Bengal. So what was the way ahead for Left? I mean they knew that this was going to happen in. the leader of the opposition Surjokant Mishra has been saying that this will be happening and filed various complaints to the election commission. So what was the mode of resistance this opposition parties had made, what's the game plan ahead for them ?

Prabir: Well, Left this time tried to come out on the  streets, did try to contest the kind of booth capturing that was taking place and was able to provide resistance across different constituencies more or less depending on the area, strength and so on. It's also true that the resistance did not led to the mas resistance of the kind which could have stopped the administration and the Trinamul. Obviously, that hasn't happened. But very clear this time the signs of resistance has emerged. I think more interestingly in some of the places, particularly, Siliguri, where Ashok Bhattacharya, who was the former minister, he said that get all the opposition parties together and say we will resist booth capturing. It doesn't matter whom you vote for but will resist the both being taken over and this model of resistance did bring out other parties also into it and including the Congress which has the significant presence in North Bengal that they were able to in spite of being electorally on  opposite side, they were able to come out to prevent booth capturing and that saw Trinamul losing the Siliguri elections. So I think that's a model which I think we can look to. Can these parties come together on the understanding that they have to ensure free and fair elections and irrespective of whether they were fighting with each other or not and can they ensure therefore, a joint resistance of the people.  I think that's an interesting development that is taking place. We have to see how it unfolds.

Pranjal: In 2014 elections we had seen that BJP had won 2 of the Parliamentary seats and a by-poll also later. But in municipal corporation elections they have won very few seats. They claim to have 55 lakh members through their membership campaign. But it has not been able to yield much results. So can we call it winning of the Modi wave in West Bengal or has it not worked?

Prabir: Well, I don't know whether there was a Modi wave or not in West Bengal. But it does appear that there was a feeling that with Modi, with the kind of the strength BJP was showing on All India level, a section of the Bengal voters also voted for the BJP more probably as an anti Manmohan vote, anti UPA vote and because Left was not in the running therefore, some of it went to BJP. Clearly, BJP has lost heavily in terms of the expectation that they could emerge as number 2. They barely held on to the number 3 position and very close to Congress on that and they have come back to what would have considered a traditional vote bank in Bengal which have about 10 to 15 percent. They have got at some point 15 percent in the early 90s, I think they also had a 15 percent, 17 percent vote. So there is a BJP vote repository which is there which doesn't vote for the BJP because it doesn't see them as an alternative. But it is nevertheless is there. I think the important part is that it has come back to there whatever extra gains it might have made in the period of one year virtually, they have lost completely. They are back to their basic strength. The second part of it, BJP has lost a lost of credibility because it is trying to put up candidates for elections and so on. They have been physical fights with the BJP at the BJP offices and this has obviously given a very poor picture of the BJP to the people. The third part is it's very clear that the BJP is no longer is considered as a opposition to the Trinamul in the  larger sense. Therefore, it is very clear that the BJPs dream of becoming the number two in Bengal is over. So that I think, these are the three take aways as far as BJP is concerned. They have come back to being a yes yes along with Congress a weak opposition to Mamta and the Left.

Pranjal: That's all the time we have for today. Prabir and will be coming back to you on such issues. Thanks. Thanking for coming to Newsclick. Thank you for watching Newsclick.