THE WEST BENGAL PANCHAYAT ELECTION FIASCO: Who is stronger: the State or the Election Commission?

The war sparked off even before the election procedure had begun. It was a battle between two of the most powerful institutions in the state of West Bengal- the State Election Commission led by State Election Commissioner Mira Pande and the State Government led by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.  While the initial debate centered on whether the elections should be held in three phases or two, it has come a long way since then with Mamata Banerjee putting her foot down on certain significant issues. Finally, the West Bengal Panchayat Elections are scheduled to be held in five phases from July 11^th. In the mean time, our respected Chief Minister’s ‘Ma, Mati, Manush’ slogan went for a toss as she began to concentrate more on getting her way with the Supreme Court and also winning the legal case so that she could do as she pleased.

It wasn’t about people’s welfare anymore as the dates of the Panchayat Election kept getting postponed. First it was the monsoons which were apparently said to become a deterrent to the election process going off smoothly. According to the fixed dates, the polls would begin by July 5^th. But can the government ever be happy? The Mamata Banerjee led Trinamool government kept on appealing to the Supreme Court to revise the poll schedule- an occurrence that was not only redundant but also ridiculous. I mean, is the State going through such severe political and economic turmoil that it cannot conduct simple Panchayat elections smoothly? The people have been waiting to vote and their time has, needless to say, not been valued by the government. Due to the uncertainties in the dates of the elections, the State Election Commission could not issue any poll notification. Considering the fact that elections are not daily occurrences in the livelihood of the people, the government has in this matter failed to plan beforehand. This crisis could easily have been avoided if the Chief Minister had prevented herself from engaging in verbal battles so regularly.

The State Election Commissioner in the light of this situation did predict that delaying the elections could mean an extension of the existing local governments and increased violence among the rural population in the state. But as usual, the choice was to turn a deaf ear to the advice. Due to this silly delay, the University of Calcutta has been forced to postpone its Part-I and Part-II examinations indefinitely, leaving students and their parents perplexed and irritated.

Another bone of contention between the SEC and the State Government was to bring or not to bring security forces from outside the state for conducting the election process smoothly. The WBSEC felt that the polls couldn’t be held properly unless adequate security cover was provided to the normal, sensitive and extra sensitive poll areas. There was a demand for 300 companies of Central armed police forces which the Centre previously declined, and agreed to later on. They would be coming into the states three days prior to the elections, on the 8th of July.

The monsoons have arrived in West Bengal but are yet to gain their usual force. The elections are well, sadly, still in the waiting. Power has neither been distributed judiciously not handled intelligently. The Supreme Court has had to take a firm stand because things were indeed getting out of hand.

The big question however is yet to be asked: Is the Trinamool government even a wee bit interested in consolidating rural support by participating in the Panchayat elections? Considering that in parts of South and North 24 Parganas and East and West Midnapore the Trinamool has a stronghold, it is strange to see how lethargic the government’s attitude has been towards reaching a consensus on the poll dates. Sadly, Kolkata isn’t West Bengal, like Mamata Banerjee believes it to be so. There needs to be some sort of awareness about the state of West Bengal in its entirety and in doing so, the Trinamool government must start at the grass root level. It has to delve deep into each and every area and be able to respond sensitively to various issues plaguing the state.