The panchayat election will determine whether the Trinamool Congress has kept its hold or that it is slowly but surely slipping as 2014 comes
Elections are a challenge for political parties with the biggest stakes. Therefore, converting the scheduling of dates into a full blown drama is one way of earning some mileage and transforming the matter of dates into a dummy run. As a mere observer, the fuss over dates is an indication that political parties are not confident about either their past, nor the present and certainly not the future.
The panchayat election in West Bengal is a case in point. The prologue to the panchayat election has been melodramatic. The outcomes may prove to be disappointing, unless the political parties can sustain the drama throughout the weeks of campaign. The new Trinamool Congress Government made its preference for an early vote obvious. This set the ball rolling on a clash of titanic proportions that has now embroiled the State Election Commission and its Commissioner, Mira Pande in an ugly conflict. It has descended to name-calling and accusations of subversion against the State Election Commissioner with innuendos galore that as a person appointed by the CPI(M)-led left Front regime, her integrity and credibility as an impartial administrator are questionable.
Panchayats connect to the grassroots. Winning the panchayat election convincingly in the case of the Trinamool Congress and staging a first recovery for the CPI(M), is vital to determining the future course of politics in West Bengal. Having abandoned the Congress, the field has been fragmented by a third choice and taking advantage of the split, the BJP has swung into action. Therefore, creating villains and demons is necessary more than ever. Hence, the demonisation of the State Election Commission and its Commissioner.
After its spectacular win in 2011, the Trinamool Congress was without a challenger in West Bengal politics. The CPI(M) and its allies were visibly and politically losers. The left leadership agonised over the rejection by voters who had loyally returned them to power over seven consecutive terms from 1977. The disarray in the left ranks was evident, as at the lowest and grassroots level there was a peeling away of people and a shift of loyalty to the Trinamool Congress. The evidence is in the conflicts that have erupted within the Trinamool Congress, between those who were with the party before the crumbling of the red bastion and those who sidled into the party later.
Faced with a weak opposition that was morally cornered, the fuss over panchayat election dates, indicative of a certain edginess, is intriguing. The Trinamool Congress trashed the CPI(M)'s record of governance and promised instead a non-partisan, clean and non-interfering administration. It created expectations about the quality of governance that it would deliver.
Through 2011 and till about a year ago. the Trinamool Congress was confident enough to taunt the CPI(M) and recommend that it should lick its wounds, repent on its sins for the next 10 years. One year ago, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee confidently asserted that she had scored almost 100 out of 100 in delivering on the promises she had made during her campaign in 2011.
Ms Banerjee may continue to declare that she has out-performed all previous Governments and set new records of governance and efficiency in West Bengal. But her anger over the State Election Commission's refusal to accept the recommendations of the Trinamool Congress Government over dates and preparations for the panchayat election reveals one of two things. First, that she really and truly wants to wipe out the CPI(M) and the Congress and any other possible contestants from the political map of West Bengal. This has been her campaign for a long time and the panchayat election present an opportunity to convert it into reality.
The second is that she is nervous about the voter evaluation of her Government and the politics of the Trinamool Congress and so her anger. After asking for an early election, she was forced to accept a date that allowed the panchayats to complete five years. Converting the panchayat election into a three-corner contest — SEC, opposition political parties, Trinamool Congress — Ms Banerjee has by her actions invited the question: For whom does the bell toll this time in West Bengal's intensely competitive politicsIJ