The Congress and the Left Front will jointly contest the upcoming Bengal rural elections, the leaders of the two parties including Pradesh Congress president Adhir Chowdhury on Friday said.
This, even as the State Opposition parties including the BJP moved Calcutta High Court seeking directions for the State Election Commission to allot more time for filing of nomination and deployment of central forces.
“I have appealed to all the Congress supporters and workers to work in coordination with the Left Front in the panchayat elections,” Chowdhury said. On how the seats would be shared he said the parties would put up their own candidates where they were stronger and support the alliance partner where they had better chances of winning.
“If an atmosphere conducive to elections can be created and if the people get a chance to vote then the TMC will get a taste of real opposition this time round,” Chowdhury said adding “we have instructed our workers to strike alliance with the Left as far as possible.”
CPI(M) central committee member Sujan Chakrabarty too said that there was a mutual understanding and the Left and the Congress would fight the polls together. “Our candidate list is ready and we are going to file nominations … will fight the elections jointly with the Congress and the Indian Secular Front.”
The Congress and Left leaders’ declarations came amid a demand for deployment of central forces and extending the time of filing nominations.
While elections will be held on July 8, the nominations for the single-phase elections will start from June 9 and continue till June 15. July 20 has been fixed as the last date of withdrawing nomination.
Both the Congress and the BJP have moved the High Court seeking extension of time for filing nomination together with a demand for deployment of central forces.
“Five days are not enough for filing nomination as it is clear that the State administrative machinery itself is not prepared to accept nomination … in many places there are no adequate nomination papers, police officials … and in many other areas the BDOs or other district and block level officers seem to be completely unprepared as they have no infrastructure, no police force … it looks like a farce taking place and so we have approached the High Court seeking extension of time and deployment of central forces,” said BJP leader Samik Bhattacharya.
Another BJP leader Rahul Sinha said no election was possible in Bengal without central forces. Senior State Congress leader Nepal Mahato too said “we will press for deployment of central forces as the number of state police for a single-phase poll is too low … the number of police forces do not even match the number of booths,” he said. There are about 59,000 booths in Bengal.
The Calcutta High Court however on Friday asked the State Election Commission to consider extension of nomination time and left the deployment of central forces to the State government.
The BJP, on behalf of the Leader of Opposition of the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari — who was in Delhi to meet Home Minister Amit Shah — demanded installation of CCTV cameras in every booth, deployment of paramilitary forces and more time in filing the nomination for the panchayat polls.
The year 2018, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) won uncontested, 34 per cent of the panchayat and a majority of the remaining seats were won by the State ruling party amid massive violence that saw about 100 deaths. Bengal has 3,317 gram panchayats and the number of village panchayat election centres is 58,594. There are a total of 63,283 panchayat seats.
Within hours of assuming charge, new State Election Commissioner Rajiva Sinha had on Thursday declared the dates of the single-phase panchayat elections. Considered a man close to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the former State Chief Secretary had said that he had not yet taken a decision on central forces.
Meanwhile, in what was being viewed as a pre-poll warning by the TMC leadership of what was to come during the rural polls, senior party leader and former minister Madan Mitra on Friday said that “the game is over for the opposition as I don’t think they will get the courage to file nomination … my only request to the TMC workers to help the opposition file at least 10 percent nomination.” On electoral violence and discovery of tons of bombs from all over the State, Mitra said that “there is no excitement without a little bit of violence,” adding, “during the CPI(M) rule there were bombs … and even today there bombs … so there is no difference.”
Mitra’s ‘threatening’ statement came amid reports of violence at Raninagar in Murshidabad, parts of East Midnapore, and some other places, sources said. The Commission had already identified five districts of Jalpaiguri, Birbhum, two 24 Parganas and East Midnapore as sensitive districts.