Why the TMC needs to hold onto power at the grassroots level in Bengal

By afternoon, opposition parties — the BJP and Congress–Left combine –withdrew from the three municipality elections of Domkol, Raigunj and Pujali, pointing fingers at the ruling party and demanding a repoll.

The violence, which marked the civic polls in three of the seven municipalities of Bengal, is perhaps a reflection of the ruling Trinamool Congress’s desperation to hold onto power at the crucial grassroots level.

Polls in the four civic bodies in Darjeeling where the supremacy of Gorkha Janmukti Morcha prevails, interestingly, had remained peaceful.

While Mamata Banerjee maintains her vociferous opposition to the BJP-led central government and the saffron brigade, she is readying herself to play a crucial role in forming an opposition platform in Delhi before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Meanwhile, her party does not want to leave any political space for the Opposition in Bengal.

The violence comes at a time when Bengal is a priority on the saffron agenda be it for the BJP or its ideological mentor, the RSS. Amit Shah has visited the state several times. The Trinamool Congress, therefore, is facing the possibility of a polarisation of votes along religious lines, which is new to the state.

There is also the fact that CBI’s Narada tape investigations are inching closer to 13 top Trinamool Congress leaders, including MPs and ministers, which has sent the party ranks and file into a tizzy in the state. Mamata’s Lok Sabha MPs Tapas Paul andk more importantly, Sudip Bandopadhyay are already in judicial custody for their alleged role in the chit fund scams.

Opposition parties allege that Trinamool Congress leaders in charge of on the three civic bodies decided to leave no stone unturned to secure victory which led to the violence.

A worried TMC has been keen to send out a message to the Congress-Left combine in its stronghold of Murshidabad (Domkol municipality) and North Dinajpur districts (Raigunj municipality) and to the BJP which is trying to emerge as the main opposition in the state.

In the 2011 assembly polls BJP managed get only 4.06 per cent of the vote share. But in 2014 Lok Sabha elections, that rose to 17.02 per cent. In 2016 assembly polls BJP received 10.16 per cent of the votes e which rose to 31 per cent in the recent assembly bypoll in Kanthi Dakshin.

Without naming the Trinamool Congress government, the RSS in March this year passed a special resolution in its ‘Akhil Bhartiya Pratinidhi Sabha’ (held in Coimbatore) condemning the ‘unabated rise of violence by Jehadi elements in West Bengal, encouragement to anti-national elements by state government due to its Muslim vote bank policies ..’

Thereafter, in a show of strength by the saffron brigade Ram Navami and Hanuman Jayanti were celebrated on an unprecedented scale in the state.

Opposition parties predict that violence may well escalate during the panchayat polls in the state, next year, and in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls thereafter.