WEST BENGAL PANCHAYAT ELECTIONS

Left Front Scores Resounding Victory

Anil  Biswas

IN view of the all-out campaign against the CPI(M)-led Left Front as well as the formation of a grand alliance by the BJP-TMC and the Congress, the results of the sixth panchayat   elections in West Bengal, held on May 11, mark a resounding victory of the CPI(M) and the Left Front as a whole. The outcome of these panchayat elections is itself a fitting reply to the calculated and false allegations of violence these parties had mounted. It is also a significant positive response to the glorious success of the panchayati raj system in West Bengal. The people have clearly expressed their opinion against the misrule of the BJP-led regime at the centre as well as the anti-people policies of the Congress.

In these elections, out of the 713 Zilla Parishad (ZP) seats, the Left Front has secured 617 while the opposition could win only 95 seats. Out of the 17 districts in the state, the Left Front has got an absolute majority in 15 districts. Out of 33 ZP seats in the district of Malda, the Left Front has won 16 seats and the Congress 15 seats, while the BJP and Trinamul Congress (TMC) could score only 1 seat each. The Congress captured the Murshidabad Zilla Parishad with 33 seats out of 60.

Till Wednesday (May 14) morning, complete results of elections to the Panchayat Samities and Gram Panchayats were yet to be announced. The trends so far indicate that the CPI(M) and the Left Front are in a comfortable lead. Out of the 8524 Panchayat Samity seats, results have been received for 6176 seats by the time we go to press. Out of these, the Left Front had secured 4514 seats, with the CPI(M) alone getting 4158. On the other hand, the Congress(I) could win only 846 seats, the TMC 500 and the BJP 84 only.

In the last state assembly elections, the BJP got a severe drubbing and could not have a single seat to its credit. But still more dismal is the performance of the BJP in the ZP elections this time; here it has got only one seat out of 713 --- even after allying with the TMC and entering an opportunistic understanding with the Congress(I). The bogey of violence raised by the BJP-TMC combine was confined to two to three districts only, whereas they have put up a very poor show in almost all the districts.

It is a well-known fact that it was the BJP, the TMC and the Congress who perpetrated violence in some parts of the state in the pre-poll days and on the day of polling. Most of the victims of their violence were CPI(M) activists.

In these local bodies polls, the CPI(M) and the Left Front concentrated their campaign on political issues and the issue of the Left Front’s performance in the panchayats in the last five years despite the hostile attitude of the centre. On the contrary, during the campaign, the BJP-TMC combine and the Congress confined themselves to maligning the Left Front and its leaders --- a task in which they got full support from the print as well as electronic media. The outcome, therefore, is also a manifestation of the people's positive response to the political issues and their considered opinion on the performance of the panchayati raj system.

Another fact that needs to be highlighted in this context is that while, in the rest of the Indian states, the pattern of people's verdict is generally against the ruling parties, it was not so in West Bengal. However, it is not difficult to identify the factors that made the results here defy the general pattern of voting in the country. This has been because of the functioning of the Left Front and its government and of the panchayati raj system, with the active participation of the people in the implementation process, and the rapport the Left Front parties have built up with the people. Determined and sustained efforts to defend the interests of the people despite the mounting odds, comprehensive land reforms and the Left Front’s firm stand to safeguard and strengthen democracy at the grass roots level and other levels have no parallel in the country. This is a record that could not be overshadowed even by the widespread falsehood resorted to by the media in the last 25 years.

True, there were some chinks in the unity of the Left Front on some seat allocations. If this had been avoided the opponents of the Left Front would have suffered an even more severe defeat. We must make concerted efforts to overcome such problems and strengthen unity.

The reverses in the Murshidabad Zilla Parishad need to be evaluated in depth, both politically and organisationally, though our comrades in the district contributed a lot to this political battle. Malda district now has a hung Zilla Parishad though the Left Front has emerged as the largest force.

In the fifth panchayat elections in 1998, the then newly born TMC had gained a lot by forging an alliance with the BJP and having some adjustment with the Congress. This grand alliance has been still more open and more direct this time, with adjustments among these three groups in more than one-third of the total number of seats. The assembly elections had witnessed an alliance of the TMC and the Congress, though their performance was meagre. The TMC-BJP combine faced the music bitterly this time because of their utterly bankrupt line.

These panchayat elections in West Bengal drew close attention from the people and the media all over the country. This is not so with any other state. This is because of the fact that the panchayat elections in West Bengal have put into practice the most democratic and decentralised system so far. At the national level, some such systems were conceptualised on separate occasions but were never implemented by the Congress, the BJP and other bourgeois-landlord parties in the states that they rule or have ruled in the past --- simply because of a lack of political will and the class interests they serve.