People's Democracy

IN Bengal, the Left Front’s candidate, Krishnakishore Roy of the CPI(M), registered an emphatic victory over his rivals, winning the bypoll to the South Howrah assembly seat with a thumping majority. Candidates of both the Congress(I) and the Trinamul Congress experienced the discomfiture of having their deposits forfeited. Held on July 2, the bypoll took place as the seat had fallen vacant following the sudden demise of the sitting CPI(M) MLA, Badal Basu.

The CPI(M) candidate won by a resounding margin of over 66,000 votes, with the Congress(I) and Trinamul Congress candidates lagging a long way behind. The South Howrah Assembly seat is dominated by a large number of industrial units including the Guest Keen Williams and the Ganges jute mill, and by a plethora of middle-class housing estates. The following figures tell the story of how things tuned out.

As per the election code, 17,226 was the minimum number of votes required by a candidate to avoid forfeiture of his deposit in this bypoll. But the two main rivals of the Left Front ended up some way behind that figure.

Voting was free, fair and peaceful, and free from any kind of serious controversies. When the two Congresses lodged complaints about the "large-scale rigging by the Left" in 40-odd booths, the central election observers who had come from Delhi promptly visited the concerned booths and dismissed the charge out of hand

Felicitating the electorate for displaying their democratic thinking, state CPI(M) secretary Anil Biswas said the pattern of voting clearly showed the eroding popular base of both the Congresses in Howrah, as elsewhere. On the other hand, the CPI(M) increased its margin of victory for the South Howrah seat by an appreciable margin.

Bengal Left Front chairman, Biman Basu, also congratulated the people for ensuring an emphatic victory for Left Front in the byelection.

Goons in the Trinamul Congress pay and patronage shot to death Comrade Suraj Laskar at Ghutiari Sharif in South 24 Parganas on July 6. Comrade Suraj (59) was a member of the Narayanpur Gram Panchayat of the Canning-II Panchayat Samity. He has left behind his wife and five children.

The Trinamul Congress goons, led by notorious historysheeter Rafikul Laskar alias Becharam, carried out their dastardly attack on Comrade Suraj when he was going to the market late in the evening.

When the cycle-rickshaw in which Comrade Suraj was travelling entered a lonely stretch near Ghutiari Sharif, the waiting gang of Trinamul assassins pounced on him and shot him repeatedly at point blank range. Comrade Suraj died on the spot from massive head and chest wounds while the killers made good their escape through the dense bamboo groves that mark the spot.

State CPI(M) secretary Anil Biswas and Left Front chairman Biman Basu have severely condemned the killing. The police were on the look-out for the murderers, most of whom were apparently brought in from the nearby villages by local Trinamul leaders for the express purpose of assassinating Comrade Suraj Laskar.

A massive campaign is on against the proposal to bifurcate the Eastern Railways. House-to-house visits were organised in districts where the Left Front workers distributed folders carefully explaining the unscientific and anti-people nature of the bifurcation move. The fact that the move would go a long way to jeopardise national unity is being especially stressed. The folder also exposed the opportunistic role of Trinamul Congress on the issue.

At the same time, processions and jathas were taken out in the afternoons from where slogans were shouted against the move to restructure the exiting railway divisions and zones. Street corners meetings and baithak sabhas, too, are being organised in mornings as well as evenings. A drive to collect signatures against the move is also planned. Following a mass rally, these signatures will be handed over to Bengal’s governor by a deputation.