To bring down force requirement, state banks on no-contest booths

KOLKATA: The government, under pressure from the high court over the security plan for the rural polls, is counting on the 11,016 “nocontest” polling booths across the state to bring down the number of armed forces needed in the run up to the polls.

The state has a little over 46,000 armed forces for a total 58,467 polling booths. Chief secretary Moloy De will hold an urgent meeting with senior officials at Nabanna on Thursday to take stock of the availability of forces from other states that the government has already written to, before submitting the security plan to the State Election Commission (SEC) by May 4 — the deadline set by the Calcutta High Court.
Figures with the SEC show that candidates have been elected unopposed in 18.84% seats in the three tiers of the panchayat system.A panchayat poll voter casts three votes — for gram panchayat, panchayat samiti and zilla parishad.
A closer look at the factsheet shows that percentage of uncontested seats is the highest in Birbhu (83.06%), followed by Bankura (57.63%), Murshidabad(55.30%), Purba Burdwan
(26.50%) and South 24 Parganas (24.54%). The high percentage of booths without contest comes from those districts where opposition parties are a viable force. For instance, no one can discount BJP’s presence in Birbhum though the ruling Trinamool has bagged all the 42 zilla parishad seats unopposed. The party enjoys a traditional support base in Bankura town and is expanding in the villages.
Murshidabad, known as Congress strongman Adhir Chowdhury’s turf, went with Congress in the 2015 municipal polls and 2016 assembly polls though the Trinamool later managed a majority in all the eight municipalities and the Murshidabad Zilla Parishad after Congress and some Left members joined the ruling party. The uncontested seats this time has got the Trinamool majority in Murshidabad Zilla Parishad. Same is the situation in Purba Burdwan, where CPM couldn’t file nominations in two zilla parishad seats from Memari, once a red bastion and the birth place of CPM stalwart Harekrishna Konar. In South 24 Parganas, the opposition couldn’t file nominations for panchayat seats, particularly under the Diamond Harbour Lok Sabha constituency from where Mamata Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee got elected.
However, opposition parties can’t blame it entirely on the Trinamool for not being able to file nominations. There are eight districts, five in north Bengal — Alipurduar, Jalpaiguri, Dakshin Dinajpur and Malda — and four districts in south Bengal — Howrah, Paschim Medinipur, Jhargram and Purulia — where polls will be held in all the booths. BJP is gaining traction among the tribals both in north and south Bengal and also making inroads into the Rajbanshis, who enjoy SC status in Bengal. Congress and CPM are looking at a one-on-one fight against Trinamool in Malda. In Cooch Behar, where Trinamool support base has come under challenge from BJP has only 2.69% polling booths where there is no contest.