Pre-poll green surge: Trinamool starts celebrating in Birbhum

KOLKATA: Till around 9pm on Monday, it was an uncontested victory for them. And Trinamool Congress supports started celebrating across several south Bengal districts. That was before the state election commission extended the date of filing nominations by aday. No nomination was filed against the ruling party candidates in 41 of the 42 zilla parishad seats in Birbhum, the district that had been the epicentre of pre-rural poll violence since April 2 — the first day of filing of nominations.And of the 19 panchayat samitis (the second tier of the three-tier panchayat administration), no opposition candidated filed nomination in 14 seats.
Now Trinamool will have to wait till 3pm on Tuesday to know the final outcome. The opposition — BJP, CPM and Congress — couldn’t field candidates for these seats, not to mention about the gram panchayats in the district. According to the fact sheet released by the Birbhum district administration on Monday, the opposition has no presence in the panchayat samitis of Bolpur-Sriniketan, Dubrajpur, Ilambazar, Labhpur, Rampurhat, Sainthia and Suri. It, however, was not a cakewalk for Trinamool in Nalhati and Mohammadbazar that witnessed armed street fights during the last two days. Trinamool’s Birbhum district president Anubrata Mondal wondered why the opposition couldn’t field candidates for 41 zilla parishad seats.
“I understand that CPM and BJP do not have the manpower to field candidates in panchayat samitis and gram panchayats. But why couldn’t the CPM file nominations for the zilla parishad seats?” Mondal mockingly said. He didn’t name the BJP that has gained grounds among the adivasis and sections of Muslims in the district. A CPM candidate from Nalhati said: “Police wouldn’t allow opposition supporters to reach up to the block or SDO offices. The administration stopped our men on the plea that Section 144 had been clamped in and around the block compound. They allowed only the candidate and the proposer inside the block compound. When two of our men reached there, they found Trinamool toughs taking position inside the compound in huge numbers. These people pounced on our candidates and snatched their nomination papers.”
“Our candidates are under tremendous pressure,” said BJP Birbhum president Ramkrishna Roy. Even the Adhir Chowdhury brigade in Murshidabad crumbled under pressure in his own turf Behrampore. Congressmen were beaten up while they went to submit nominations on Monday, while Congress and Left couldn’t field candidates in strongholds such as Kandi, Bharatpur, Barwan, and Beldanaga. BJP faced resistance in Barabani and Salanpur despite having a Union minister (Babul Supriyo) from Asansol. CPM couldn’t field candidates for the two zilla parishad seats in the once “red citadel” Memari in Burdwan. CPM could hardly manage to file nominations in 14% gram panchayat seats.
The faction-ridden Trinamool in South 24 Parganas didn’t take chances in Canning, Diamond Harbour, Bhangar and parts of the “dwipanchal” that saw a saffron spurt a few months ago. The opposition made all efforts to field candidates in rural seats under Trinamool MP Abhishek Banerjee’s Lok Sabha constituency that had no representation from the opposition till Saturday.