Tag: Bengal elections

  • Haunted by Trinamool’s cut money culture, Bengal minorities forced to choose a lesser evil 

    Express News Service
    NORTH DINAJPUR:  Amin Ali has just finished his lunch of rice, daal and boiled potato at a roadside eatery at Goalpokhar in North Dinajpur district.

    He is planning to buy a tarpaulin sheet to cover the tiled roof his house before seasonal thunderstorms hit the region.

    He got a house under the state government’s housing scheme for the poor, but without a concrete roof over it.

    The 55-year-old brick kiln labourer had to pay Rs 30,000 as ‘cut money’ to local Trinamool Congress leaders for getting himself enrolled in the list of beneficiaries.

    As a result, he struggles with the stopgap roof of his house which gets damaged by storm almost every year.

    “There are many others who had to face the similar plight. I had no option other than paying the cut money. How could I build a house with concrete walls with my monthly earning of Rs 4,500,’’ Ali says.

    BJP has been making relentless attacks on the Mamata Banerjee government on the issue of cut money.

    But the campaign’s electoral impact seems to be missing in this minority-dominated region of north Bengal comprising two districts North Dinajpur and Malda where 21 Assembly constituencies are located. Whom will you vote for?

    “Do we have an option? We have to vote for those who have given us half a house. If they (BJP) come to power, we will be driven out of the country,’’ says the father of three, who migrated from Bangladesh 35 years ago.

    Extreme polarisation

    Sensing adverse impacts of the Citizenship Amendment Act and lukewarm impact of TMC’s alleged corruption on the region’s minority vote bank which forms around 50 per cent of the total electorates, BJP is trying to hard sell the Hindutva rhetoric.

    This region is set to experience an extremely polarised election on the line of religion. BJP faced largescale agitations over its choice of candidates, which is also a factor that might fetch TMC electoral dividend.

    Asgar Ali, a graduate in philosophy, is more concerned about his future than BJP’s Hindutva or TMC’s minority appeasement.

    “Practically, I don’t see a reason to vote for either. Joblessness is an issue among the youth like me which the TMC government failed to address in 10 years. Many from our area secured jobs of teachers in primary schools after paying bribes ranging from `10 lakh to `15 lakh. On the other hand, BJP leaders never hesitate to issue statements which not only hurt us but also makes us feel insecure,’’ he says.

    JP supporters during Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s roadshow in Nadiadistrict on Sunday

    The 27-year-old, a face of Bengal’s educated and jobless young voters, finds no reason to support the LF-Congress alliance as it would mean wasting his ‘valuable’ vote.

    “My political allegiance might be towards TMC. At least, they would be opposing CAA, which poses as a threat to us,’’ says the resident of Chakulia, another minority-dominated pocket in North Dinajpur.

    The electoral landscape in Bengal’s concentrated minority pockets was not as polarised during the 2016 elections.

    Though BJP is painting Mamata as anti-Hindu, Muslim voters had shown that she was not their preferred choice in the previous Assembly elections.

    In the districts of Murshidabad, Malda and North Dinajpur, which have a minority population of over 50 per cent, the CPI(M)-Congress alliance had won 31 seats out of 43. But in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, TMC secured lead in 23 Assembly constituencies.

    Debasish Biswas, professor of economics in Raiganj University and a political observer, described TMC’s surge in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections as a fallout of BJP’s aggressive Hindutva campaign.

    “The minorities, who did not vote for TMC in the 2016 Assembly polls, extended their support to them in 2019. It is a direct impact of NRC and CAA, which Mamata Benerjee also described as a threat to the minority community,’’ he observes.

    How lotus bloomed

    Asim Biswas, a farmer in his 40s, said most of the Hindus had migrated from Bangladesh and CAA is promising citizenship for them.

    “When Muslims of this region united, Hindus, too, decided to come under the umbrella of BJP. That’s why BJP secured lead in this Assembly seat in the 2019 elections despite TMC winning the seat in 2016,’’ says Biswas, who has shifted allegiance from CPI(M) to BJP, like many others across the state.

    They are a massive factor behind the saffron camp’s rise in Bengal. In Raiganj, the headquarters of North Dinajpur which is infamous for hooligaism, shootouts and gang rivalries, TMC is trying to dent Congress’s vote bank after winning the civic body, which was ruled by the grand old party since 1950.

    The TMC also erected two statues of Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi, the late Congress stalwart from the region.

    “A considerable number of Congress workers still carry Dasmunsi’s legacy. Congress has no chance of doing well in this region. Our attempt is to woo Congress supporters,’’ said Kanhaiyalal Agarwal, TMC’s candidate from Raiganj.

  • Bengal polls: EC defends Twitter advertisement carrying image of armed forces

    By Express News Service
    NEW DELHI:  The Election Commission has defended using the image of armed forces in a tweet viewed by some as a violation of its own rules urging eligible people to vote in the final phases of the Bengal polls. 

    In a tweet, the poll panel said the Model Code of Conduct which cautions against involving the armed forces in election campaigns was applicable only to political parties, and did not apply in its (EC’s) case. 

    The Commission said its tweet was only meant to educate people about the importance of voting. 

    In the run up to fourth phase of polls in West Bengal on Saturday the poll panel had issued an advertisement urging people to vote fearlessly.

    The advertisement also showed an image of iconic cartoonist RK Laxman’s ‘Common Man’ paying homage to a memorial of soldiers.

    The advertisement read: “They sacrifice for their country. Can’t you even for the country?”

    The advertisement had invited criticism from some corners, saying the poll body was dragging armed forces into the poll exercise unnecessarily. 

    The poll body is of the view that the armed forces are neutral stakeholders in a modern democracy and it has asked political parties to desist from using photographs of defence personnel on hoardings.

  • Bengal polls: Amid widespread protests over Sitalkuchi firing, Dilip Ghosh’s ‘naughty boys’ remark draws flak

    By Express News Service
    KOLKATA: West Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh on Sunday courted fresh controversy by saying that more Cooch Behar-like killings may happen in the next phase of Assembly elections if “naughty boys like the ones who died in Sitalkuchi” try to take law into their hands.

    Strongly reacting to the statement, TMC demanded his arrest while the CPI(M) said the comment unmasks the saffron party’s fascist face.

    “Naughty boys received bullets at Sitalkuchi. If anyone dares to take the law into his hands, this will happen to him also,” Ghosh said while addressing an election rally in North 24 Parganas district.

    Four persons died as CISF personnel opened fire after some people allegedly tried to snatch their rifles while voting was underway in Sitalkuchi.

    “The naughty boys, who had presumed that the rifles of the central forces were just for a show during election duty, will not dare repeat the same mistake after seeing what happened in Sitalkuchi,” he said, while addressing an election rally at Baranagar in North 24 Parganas district.

    Four persons died as CISF personnel opened fire after some people “attempted to snatch their rifles” while voting was underway in Sitalkuchi assembly constituency area in the fourth phase on Saturday.

    “On April 17 (date of fifth phase of polling) as well, the central forces will be at the booths.

    Sitalkuchi-like incidents may happen if people try to take the law into their hands,” he said.

    His comment triggered protest with TMC demanding his immediate arrest.

    “We demand his immediate arrest for making such an inflammatory statement which will encourage trigger happy forces and threaten the safety of voters,” TMC MP Sukhendu Sekhar Roy told reporters.

    Left Front leader Sujan Chakraborty, also the CPI(M) candidate in the Jadavpur seat, said, “Dilip Ghosh is making irresponsible statements. His comment unmasks the fascist face of the BJP.”

    Ghosh had earlier made several controversial statements, triggering political storms and public outrage.

    Meanwhile, 11,700 demonstrations were held in south and north Bengal where TMC activists wore black badges and demanded the resignation of Home Minister Shah, naming him as the conspirator of the incident.

    Four persons died on Saturday in Sitalkuchi area of Cooch Behar when CISF personnel opened fire allegedly after coming under attack from locals, who “attempted to snatch their rifles”, the police had said.

    In Kolkata, TMC leader and minister Sashi Panja led protest rallies in Esplanade area, as participants lit candles and converged in front of Mahatma Gandhi’s statue.

    Similar demonstrations were also held in Taldangra in Bankura, Canning in South 24 Parganas and in Hooghly district, TMC sources said.

    The deaths have set off a political firestorm in West Bengal, with the ruling TMC and challenger BJP blaming each other for the violence, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has said a CID probe will be instituted into the incident.

    (With PTI Inputs)

  • ‘EC trying to suppress facts by barring entry of politicians’: Mamata on Cooch Behar firing

    By PTI
    SILIGURI: Describing the incident of firing in Cooch Behar as a “genocide”, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday said the Election Commission has restricted the entry of politicians in the district for 72 hours as it seeks to “suppress facts”.

    The TMC supremo, while addressing a press meet here, claimed that central forces “sprayed bullets aiming at the torso of the victims” in Sitalkuchi area, when the fourth phase of polling was underway in the state.

    “There was genocide at Sitalkuchi. I would like to visit Sitalkuchi by April 14. The EC is trying to suppress facts by restricting entry in Cooch Behar. We have an incompetent home minister and an incompetent central government,” Banerjee said.

    Four persons died on Saturday when CISF personnel opened fire allegedly after coming under attack from locals, who “attempted to snatch their rifles”, the police had said.

    “The CISF doesn’t know how to handle situations. Since the first phase of elections, I had been saying that a section of the central forces are committing atrocities on people. I had flagged the issue in Nandigram, but none paid attention to my words,” she stated.

    The feisty TMC chief also spoke to the brother of one of the deceased over a video call, in the midst of the press meet, and promised all help to the bereaved family.

    The man, on his part, was heard saying that the jawans had opened fire on the voters.

    “He (one of the four killed in firing) was standing in a queue when the jawans opened fire. His wife is pregnant. They also have a three-year-old child. Our parents are shocked and devastated,” the man told the CM.

    Banerjee asked a local TMC leader, who made arrangements for the video chat from Sitalkuchi, to send her a copy of the FIR filed in connection with the incident.

    “I will be addressing election meetings today, but with a heavy heart. The episode keeps haunting me,” the CM said, adding that party workers will stage protests against the incident across the state.

    Taking to Twitter, Banerjee, in a jibe at the poll panel, also said that the “EC should rename MCC (Model Code of Conduct) as Modi Code of Conduct!”

    “BJP can use all its might but NOTHING in this world can stop me from being with my people & sharing their pain. They can restrict me from visiting my brothers & sisters in Cooch Behar for 3 days but I WILL be there on the 4th day!,” she posted on the microblogging site.

  • ‘Rename Model Code of Conduct as Modi Code of Conduct’: Mamata’s jibe at EC

    Mamata Banerjee had said that she will hold a protest rally in Cooch Behar on Sunday against the firing incident and visit the homes of the deceased.

  • Bengal polls: Bombs, gun powder, bullets recovered in Bhatpara ahead of sixth phase

    By ANI
    NORTH 24 PARGANAS: Police recovered bombs, bomb-making equipment, gun powder and bullets in the Madral Joychanditala area of Bhatpara on Saturday.

    Police registered a case under the Explosive Substances Act and Arms Act. Further investigation is underway.

    The Election Commission has intensified the vigilance across West Bengal to check any untoward incident in the poll season.

    The voting in the Bhatpara constituency in North 24 Parganas will be held in the sixth phase of the state assembly polls on April 22.

    West Bengal has a history of violence during elections. Keeping this in mind, EC has been conducting the assembly elections this time in eight phases.

    The first four phases of the eight-phased elections have taken place on March 27, April 1, April 6 and April 10. The counting of the votes will take place on May 2.

  • Bengal polls: EC issues notice to Mamata again, this time over remarks on central forces

    By Express News Service
    KOLKATA: The Election Commission on Friday served second notice on West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee for her statement against central police personnel deployed in the state on election duty. 

    The Commission asked Mamata to reply by Saturday.

    Two days ago, the CM was served the first notice for urging the Muslim electorates not to split their vote bank.

    In the notice, the Commission said Mamata Banerjee prima facie violated various sections of the Indian Penal Code with her remarks against the central force. “Prima facie, the completely false, provocative, and intemperate statements attempted to berate and vilify central paramilitary forces during the election process,” the notice said.

    While addressing rallies, Mamata Banerjee, on several occasions, hit out at central force alleging it was working at the behest of the BJP and threatening people to either cast votes in favour of the saffron camp or stop going to the polling booth.

    ALSO READ | West Bengal polls: BJP candidate’s convoy attacked in Howrah

    The Trinamool Congress supremo, who addressed four back-to-back rallies on Friday, asked why no complaint has been registered against BJP’s star campaigners and Prime Minister Narendra Modi despite their references to Hindu and Muslim vote banks in his speeches.

    “Why no complaint has been filed against Narendra Modi who talk about Hindu and Muslim (vote bank) every day. How many complaints have been lodged against those who had uttered the word mini Pakistan during the Nandigram campaigns?” Mamata asked.

    BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari, who contested against Mamata in Nandigram, uttered the phrase ‘mini Pakistan’ in his speech while accusing the CM of practising appeasement politics.

    Mamata said she will continue criticising CRPF’s interference till it stops working for the BJP.

    Referring to Commission’s first notice, Mamata had on Thursday said the EC can issue 10 notices to her but her reply will be the same.

  • Bengal polls: 13 years after Tata’s ouster, Singur seeks industrialisation

    By PTI
    SINGUR: Thirteen years after a farmers’ stir put Singur on India’s political map, having forced the exit of Tata’s Nano car project, industrialisation has emerged as the main poll plank in this constituency as the land, for which swords were crossed, has been rendered infertile.

    Battle lines have been redrawn in Singur, a place that along with Nandigram shook the foundations of the mighty 34- year-old Left Front regime and propelled Mamata Banerjee to power in 2011, with TMC’s sitting MLA Rabindranath Bhattacharya – a front-runner of the anti-land acquisition protest – shifting his allegiance to the BJP.

    The ruling camp has field Bhattacharya’s former associate, Becharam Manna, from the seat.

    Farmers, who had been handed over the land parcels that were initially acquired for the Tata project, now depend on government doles and petty jobs to make ends meet.

    Many of them feel betrayed as the TMC government failed to keep its promise of turning their arid plots cultivable.

    Ironically, both the TMC and the BJP have promised industrialisation in Singur this election, having got a whiff of local sentiments, with ‘Master Moshai’ (the teacher) — as 89-year-old Bhattacharya is commonly referred to — and TMC candidate Manna crossing swords in the area over the issue.

    The CPI (M)’s young turk, Srijan Bhattacharya, however, hopes that he would have the last laugh in the agrarian constituency, where his party desperately seeks to recover its lost ground.

    Rabindranath Bhattacharya, once the eyes and ears of Mamata Banerjee’s Singur movement, told PTI, “We were never against industry; we were against forcible land acquisition. Somehow, things went out of control. The people here now want industry. If the BJP comes to power, we will work to bring investments in the area.”

    Manna, who is trying his best to keep the TMC flag flying in the constituency, said agro-based industries are best suited for the place.

    “A few agro-based industries have already come up in Singur. The TMC dispensation had been putting in efforts to make this area a major hub of agro-industries in the near future,” he claimed.

    Srijan, the 28-year-old firebrand student leader, mocked both Bhattacharya and Manna over their assertions and said the TMC and the BJP are only repeating what the Left Front had said 15 years ago.

    “Both of them are shedding crocodile tears, having sensed the mood of the people. We had missed the bus back then. Only the Left, however, can change things for better,” the SFI state secretary said.

    Singur — once known for multiple crop farming – hogged the limelight after Tata Motors set its sight on the area to build its cheapest car manufacturing unit, Nano, in 2006.

    The Left Front government had acquired 997.11 acres along National Highway 2 and handed it over to the company.

    Leading from the front, the then opposition leader and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee had called for a 26-day hunger strike, demanding the return of 347 acres that were apparently forcibly acquired.

    The TMC, which had a strong support base in the area with Bhattacharya as the sitting MLA, spearheaded a mass movement against the alleged acquisition.

    Despite numerous meetings and consultations between the TMC and the Left Front government, no solution was reached, and Tatas eventually moved out of Singur and built its plant in Gujarat’s Sanand.

    Land acquired for the project was subsequently returned to locals in 2016.

    The Mamata Banerjee government, over the last few years, however, failed to turn the barren tracts fertile as it involvea huge expenditure, and many farmers ended up selling their plots.

    According to agricultural experts, with concrete pillars and cement slabs embedded in the land, at least seven to eight inches of topsoil will have to be removed to make the plots in Singur cultivable.

    The TMC dispensation, even after hosting various business summits, could not bag any investment for the constituency that had given the party the political heft to rise to power.

    Over the years, the Singur movement might have found a place in school textbooks, but the residents here continue to stare at a bleak future.

    “What did we get out of this agitation? Nothing. Now we feel it was all a mistake. We have no work, and our land has turned infertile. We are living in abject poverty,” Biren Mondal, who got back his 60 Kottah of land in 2016, rued.

    The TMC, post its electoral reverses in the segment in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, took up the job of restoring the land; but large swathes still remain unproductive.

    “Even in the tracts that has been restored, crop production is not up to the mark, unlike what was the case two decades ago,” said Mahadeb Das, a farmer who, too, was part of the movement.

    In villages of Gopalnagar, Khaserbheri, Beraberi, where huge tracts were acquired for the car project, at least 3,000 farmers and sharecroppers now thrive on Rs 2,000 cash and 16 kg rice provided by the TMC government, and most men in their families have moved out of Bengal in search of jobs.

    Gopal Das, who had willingly given up his land for the Tata project and had even got his sons trained for jobs in the Nano plant’s ancillary units, curse the Singur movement.

    “After the Tata group left, my sons found no job for two years. I used to run a tea stall. Now they work at a car plant in Gurgaon. Had the locals and politicians not stopped the company from setting up the car manufacturing plant, a lot would have changed in Singur. Our children would have been living here, with us,” he said.

    Riding on this resentment, the BJP made deep inroads in the area in 2019 by wresting the Hooghly Lok Sabha seat from the ruling TMC — which experienced a significant dip in its vote share.

    Singur, one of the keenly watched seats this assembly elections, has 2,46,726 voters.

    The constituency is set to go to on April 10.

  • Bengal polls: EC issues notice to Mamata again, this time over remarks on central forces

    By Express News Service
    KOLKATA: The Election Commission on Friday served second notice on West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee for her statement against central police personnel deployed in the state on election duty. 

    The Commission asked Mamata to reply by Saturday.

    Two days ago, the CM was served the first notice for urging the Muslim electorates not to split their vote bank.

    In the notice, the Commission said Mamata Banerjee prima facie violated various sections of the Indian Penal Code with her remarks against the central force. “Prima facie, the completely false, provocative, and intemperate statements attempted to berate and vilify central paramilitary forces during the election process,” the notice said.

    While addressing rallies, Mamata Banerjee, on several occasions, hit out at central force alleging it was working at the behest of the BJP and threatening people to either cast votes in favour of the saffron camp or stop going to the polling booth.

    ALSO READ | West Bengal polls: BJP candidate’s convoy attacked in Howrah

    The Trinamool Congress supremo, who addressed four back-to-back rallies on Friday, asked why no complaint has been registered against BJP’s star campaigners and Prime Minister Narendra Modi despite their references to Hindu and Muslim vote banks in his speeches.

    “Why no complaint has been filed against Narendra Modi who talk about Hindu and Muslim (vote bank) every day. How many complaints have been lodged against those who had uttered the word mini Pakistan during the Nandigram campaigns?” Mamata asked.

    BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari, who contested against Mamata in Nandigram, uttered the phrase ‘mini Pakistan’ in his speech while accusing the CM of practising appeasement politics.

    Mamata said she will continue criticising CRPF’s interference till it stops working for the BJP.

    Referring to Commission’s first notice, Mamata had on Thursday said the EC can issue 10 notices to her but her reply will be the same.

  • BJP workers accuse Trinamool counterparts of vandalising party office in Durgapur

    By ANI
    DURGAPUR: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers in Durgapur accused Trinamool Congress (TMC) workers of vandalising the party office in Basudha area of the city on Thursday.

    “TMC goons have vandalised our office. They threw the articles outside the party office. If they think BJP can be stopped by such attacks then they are wrong. People are with us,” Raman Sharma, BJP worker told ANI.

    Polling in Durgapur will be on April 26 in the seventh phase of the West Bengal assembly elections.

    In another incident in Cooch Behar district, TMC workers accused BJP workers of attacking the party’s candidate from the Mathabhanga constituency on Thursday.

    BJP and TMC are at loggerheads in poll-bound West Bengal.

    The first three phases of the eight-phased West Bengal polls have already taken place. The fourth phase of the elections will be held on Saturday. Counting of the votes will take place on May 2.