The rather high turnout during the first phase of the panchayat poll in Maoist-infested regions of West Bengal, is good. Was it real or inducedIJ
For a local Government election, where the issues ought to have been the capability of the candidates to deliver adequately, competently, without corruption and blatant nepotism or partisanship, in West Bengal, the panchayat election has metamorphosed into an intensely conflicted choice between the rule of law and the rule of the majority.
The irony is that in 2011, when the State was engulfed in the poribortan battle, the charge of flouting every norm and destroying the rule of law was levelled by the Trinamool Congress and its principal ally, the old Congress, against the CPI(M)-led left Front. In 2013, the same charge of rule of the majority and contempt for the principles of parliamentary democracy are being heaped against the Trinamool Congress, by the Opposition and the judiciary as well. When Panchayat Minister Subrata Mukherjee, who is also a veteran of the turbulent 1970s, declared that the ‘bike vahini’ (bike brigade) despite the High Court's order would prevail, he was demonstrating the cynicism that underlies the regime's response to rule of law.
Confounding the cynicism of the Trinamool Congress leadership and the defenceless fulminations of the CPI(M) and the Congress are the voters of the first phase of the five-phase panchayat election. The districts of Bankura, Purulia and West Midnapore, collectively described as Jangalmahal, went to poll on July 11. Even as the Central security forces were not deployed in all the booths identified as ultra-sensitive, and the police were bystanders when voters were attacked with bombs, other lethal weapons and bows and arrows, the extraordinary voter turnout — 85 per cent — suggests that the people were out in force. It could be that the people waited in queues till 3am on July 12 to exercise their choice because they were determined to assert their right to do so, or it could be that the voters were told to queue up or else face the consequences for disobedience. It could be that the polling booths were jammed to slow down the vote-casting process to dissuade others from voting. It could be that the ballots were stamped by the dominant political party, in this case the Trinamool Congress, to produce the high voter turnout.
Whatever be the explanations, the fact that the voters were out waiting for 10 hours in some places is evidence that something extraordinary has taken place in West Bengal. If the verdict from these districts, especially the constituencies where voters waited 10 hours past the scheduled close of voting to exercise their franchise, is overwhelmingly in favour of the Trinamool Congress, the party will have to cope with the fall-out. It will have to explain why the results were overwhelmingly in its favour, even if the choice was genuine and the process free and fair.
The unusual extension of the voting day for the panchayat poll in West Bengal has turned it into a mid-term review of the Trinamool Congress in a way that the shrill campaign by Ms Mamata Banerjee could not have anticipated. With Singur, Nandigram and Burdwan going to the poll in the second phase, Trinamool Congress's incumbency and Ms Banerjee's credibility to make poribortan will be tested. Having declared that the panchayat election would wipe out the Opposition because it would deliver an endorsement of her leadership, Ms Banerjee has assisted in the process of converting a local Government election into a renewal of her mandate to rule. By staking her popularity in the panchayat election, the Trinamool Congress leader has converted what ought to have been a verdict of the CPI(M)-dominated panchayats in West Bengal into a personal contest. Her party's candidates may sweep the panchayats in all the three tiers in all the districts; but it would be a Pyrrhic victory at the cost of her tarnished credibility.
The die has been cast in the first phase by the high voter turnout and the incredibly long wait to vote. The pattern has been established. If in the subsequent phases, the voter turnout is lower, then people would smell a rat, because the three districts that voted first were and are Maoist-infested and highly unsafe. If people in Bankura, Purulia and West Midnapore were brave enough to queue up till 3am, then the same would be expected in the other districts. If voter turnout is lower in other districts, the suspicion would be strengthened that there was tampering with the ballot.