People's Democracy

TRIPURA PANCHAYAT ELECTION

LF Waiting For Another Resounding Victory

Haripada Das           

ELECTIONS to the three tier panchayati raj bodies in Tripura are slated to be held on July 18. Elections are being held for 5,252 seats in 513 gram panchayats, 299 seats in 23 panchayat samities and 82 seats in 4 zilla parishads, one in each district. 17 block areas under Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (ADC) are out of the election purview. Under the ADC Act, there is provision that the ADC itself will conduct elections to village councils in these areas.

According to the panchayati raj act, seats in proportion to population have been reserved for the scheduled castes and tribes in all tiers. One third of the seats are reserved for women at all levels. Similar reservations have also been ensured in the election of officer bearers of panchayat bodies.

In Tripura, panchayat bodies are real instruments for decentralisation of powers, empowerment of rural poor, for involving them in resource creation at village level, and for development of an agro-based units. Here, panchayat bodies play a vital role regarding rural irrigation, village roads, sanitation, drinking water supply, rural electrification, selection of beneficiaries in various schemes, and supervision of educational institutions in villages. The foremost task of the panchayats to formulate a plan for composite development of respective villages, and these plans are then integrated into upper level plans. 

The Left Front, comprising the CPI(M), CPI, RSP and FB, is contesting these panchayat elections more unitedly. There was hardly any trouble in sharing of seats among Left Front partners. It was also decided to carry out joint poll campaigns.

In an exceptional measure, the state election commissioner had conceded the demand of the Congress and other opposition parties for extending the last date of filing nomination from June 25 to 29. Yet, due to total disarray in opposition ranks, mainly in the Congress, they did not field candidates in a good number of seats in every tier. As a result, the Left Front won a large number of seats uncontested. The Congress could win only two gram panchayat seats uncontested. 

This is the fifth panchayati raj election in the state since 1978 when the first Left Front government assumed office, and the third since the parliament enacted the 73rd constitution amendment in 1993. Like other states in the country, once the villages in Tripura were also dominated by the rural rich patronised by the ruling circles. But since the formation of the first Left Front government in 1978, domination of the vested interests in panchayats has gone. Big changes --- economic, social and cultural --- have come about in villages. An alternative village level leadership has emerged from among the since long exploited and neglected toiling masses.

The Congress, that was always keen to serve the vested interests in villages, has naturally got alienated from their people, which it cannot digest. This is why, no sooner did they usurped power in the state in 1988 through mass rigging by their hooligans, who were helped by army personnel and TNV extremist murderes, the party dissolved all the elected panchayat bodies in a single stroke, and never conducted panchayat elections in the state till it was ousted in 1993. Since then, the Congress is so much scared of being rejected by the rural masses that, on the eve of every panchayat election, it went to the court appealing on quite flimsy grounds that the election process be stalled. The court, however, rejected its plea every time. This time too, it left no stone unturned to stall the elections, but in vain. 

Though a Congress led coalition has come to power at the centre with the outside support of the Left, Congress candidates suffered shameful defeat in both Lok Sabha seats in Tripura and forfeited their deposits. Since then, the dismal plight of the Congress has further deepened. Its ally was the INPT that is the overground wing of the outlawed extremist outfit NLFT. But the INPT too has suffered a split and now it is the breakaway group that is in charge of the ADC with the outside support of the CPI(M). After the split, the INPT scrapped ties with the Congress on the eve of parliamentary elections. About 25,000 families belonging to opposition camp, mostly Congress, shifted allegiance and joined the CPI(M) and Left Front. Those disenchanted include one of the state Congress secretaries, Jiten Das, who is contesting a zilla parishad seat in West Tripura on behalf of the Left Front. 

To hide their hopeless position, a desperate Congress began to raise a hue and cry that there was no atmosphere of free and fair polling in the state. On June 6, a delegation of state Congress leaders went to meet the State Election Commission ostensibly to air their grievances about alleged manipulation in preparation of electoral rolls. The visit, however, ended on a condemnable act; the team resorted to heckling the state election commissioner G K Rao and vandalised and ransacked his office. The commissioner had to file an FIR with the police. Another Congress leader and former chief minister Samir Ranjan Barman threatened the returning officer of Bishalgarh (BDO of Bishalgarh block) and subdivisional police officers through a letter which read: “…the days gone by were better than the terrible days coming ahead…the leaders, great leaders and bureaucrats whoever might be, none could escape the destiny in the erstwhile Russia and East European countries.”

Toeing the line of these Congress leaders, miscreants in the plains and outlawed extremists in the hills then renewed their attempts to disrupt the election process. During the period, miscreants killed a pro-CPI(M) youth in Kadamtala, North Tripura. The NLFT (BM) faction wanted to kidnap a CPI(M) leader in Kulai in Dhalai district but, failing to find him, kidnapped his 15 years old daughter. At Kanpui in Kanchanpur, North Tripura, extremists kidnapped 22 small traders and 2 drivers. One group recently kidnapped Rabicharan Jamatia, executive member of the ADC, and killed 3 wood cutters. A TSR jawan was killed while conducting a search for rescue of the kidnapped executive member. On July 10, at the dead of night, a gang of armed miscreants raided the house of Nidhir Laskar, CPI(M) candidate on one of the Boxanagar panchayat samity seats. They shot at Laskar and, taking him to be dead, fled away with some household articles. A cousin of Laskar was also shot at when he tried to chase the hooligans. Both of them are now struggling for life in G B Hospital, Agartala.

As the Congress, BJP and other opposition parties have no issue to raise against the Left Front, they are not conducting any open campaign. Left Front leaders are, in their campaign, mainly highlighting the performance of outgoing panchayat bodies and the old negative attitude of the Congress and other opposition parties towards panchayats. Left Front leaders are also urging the people to keep a vigil on the functioning of the bodies they are going to elect, so that these work in a more transparent manner for the village poor’s uplift.

Despite the provocations from the Congress and the heinous attacks by anti-national extremist outfits, the undaunted democratic minded people of Tripura are in a spirited mood to give the Left Front a massive mandate in panchayat polls. (INN)