All eyes on today’s Panchayat election results in West Bengal

Panchayat elections in West Bengal are over amidst sporadic incidents and political killings in a few pockets. The results will be declared on Tuesday. Speculations are rife following the sudden Delhi visit of Governor C.V. Ananda Bose soon after the polling was over. Political grapevine has it that the Governor, who made a whirlwind trip across the state and met families of the victims of pre-poll violence, and castigated the state government’s failure to maintain law and order, is likely to meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah and submit a report on the tense situation that prevails in the state. Leader of the opposition, a TMC turncoat, Suvendu Adhikari, has demanded imposition of Article 356. Irrespective of

results, there are already some key takeaways from the rural polls and their trends. Unlike in the previous panchayat polls, this time around, active resistances were built by non-TMC parties- BJP, CPIM and even by the Congress, based on their individual cadre strength. Going strictly by numbers, more TMC activists and supporters were killed in the pre-poll violence than of the opposition cadre. Incidents of booth capturing, fake voting, snatching of ballot boxes, throwing of ballot boxes into water bodies by BJP and other opposition parties’ hoodlums were also reported. However, all these were insignificant in terms of the overall percentage of the polling booths and voters across the state. This may just be the beginning, but there is no place for complacency for the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC as this was not a clean walkover for them, unlike in the last panchayat polls, five years ago.

All these notwithstanding, statements and the body languages of non-TMC parties clearly reflect that they may still be out of the game in the ultimate analysis. The demand for Article 355 and 356 is a clear indication of that and they may prove suicidal in the long run. Actually TMC’s opponents failed, and failed miserably in spreading such resistance. The Congress is already playing a suicidal game by launching tirades against the TMC in line with the BJP, when its national leadership is trying to work out some formula to come closer to the TMC in the bid to defeat the common enemy, the BJP, on the national firmament. Amidst all these, TMC has fielded its candidates for the forthcoming Rajya Sabha polls, with a couple of surprises. Delhi-based journalist and RTI activist-turned politician Saket Gokhale has been given party ticket. Gokhale joined TMC in 2021. In December 2022, he was arrested over a tweet for posting alleged misinformation about the Morbi bridge collapse. After getting bail from a metropolitan court in Ahmedabad, he was re-arrested over the same tweet in a matter of few hours. On 10 December, he was freed on bail. This January, Gokhale was arrested again by the ED for alleged money laundering involvement. Bangla Sanskriti Mancha president Samirul Islam and TMC's Alipurduar district president Prakash Chik Baraik were also given party tickets, along with warhorses and sitting members Derek O’brien, Sukhendu Sekhar Ray and Dola Sen.