Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, July 9: As the death toll in the violence in panchayat elections in West Bengal rose to 15 on Sunday with three more Trinamool Congress workers succumbing to their injuries, blame game has begun between the ruling and the opposition parties as well as the state and central officials deployed to tame the tempers.
The ruling TMC also attempted to counter the impression the opposition parties tried to spread that the violence was widespread engulfing the entire state and pointed out that out of the 61,000 polling booths where polling was held on Saturday, violence was reported from only 60 booths. The union home minister Amit Shah has sought a detailed report on the poll violence from the state government.
Stating that any death was regrettable and expressing particular sympathy for the Trinamool workers among the casualties, the TMC leaders at a press conference rejected the opposition allegations of election violence as a distortion of reality, claiming that opposition parties and certain media outlets were “marketing violence” to discredit the elections.
“The Opposition parties are making an effort to paint the entire election process as violent, but the credit for the largely peaceful and fair polls goes to the general public,” said the TMC general secretary Kunal Ghosh. “Most of the deaths reported are of Trinamool workers, so if Trinamool was instigating the violence, why would they target their own workers?” he asked.
The TMC also drew attention to the lapses of the central forces in controlling the violence, questioning their ability and motives. “The Opposition parties demanded the deployment of central forces. But where were these forces, and why couldn’t they prevent the violence? There have been instances where central forces, including the Border Security Force, were seen on camera threatening voters and asking them to vote for a specific party. This indicates that the central forces were deployed at the behest of political masters.”
The Border Security Force, however, blamed the state election commission for alleged failure to submit in time the list of sensitive polling booth to enable the agency to deploy adequate forces. The BSF Deputy Inspector General SS Guleria had earlier said despite their repeated requests for information on sensitive polling booths, the West Bengal State Election Commission did not provide adequate details, hampering their ability to adequately safeguard these areas.
Even as polling was on, BSF IG S C Budakoti, the coordinator of Central forces in the state, wrote to State Election Commissioner Rajiv Sinha complaining that they were not given adequate information for proper deployment. Sinha, on the other hand, has said the Central forces failed to reach on time, with many landing only in the final hours of polling even in areas which have been seeing violence for days. The BJP has claimed that in many places, Central forces were not deployed at all.
In his letter to Sinha, Budakoti wrote that as per orders of the Calcutta High Court, “we were assigned to deploy CAPF / SAPs in consultation with the State Election Commission (SEC) at sensitive booths… After discussions on the issue during the meeting on 6th July… you only provided a district-wise list of sensitive booths and polling booths / premises… District-wise figures of sensitive booths without the details of booth no. block and panchayat (does not make it) possible to identify the booths for deployment of troops.”
With polling on, Budakoti said “in spite (of) our repeated verbal and written requests, so far no details of sensitive booths have been provided to us”. Calling this “non-cooperation” from the SEC, Budakoti said this meant they were not able to deploy troops as needed.
Speaking to journalists at the end of the day, State Election Commissioner Sinha blamed the Union Ministry of Home Affairs for the confusion on deployment of Central forces. He said: “We gave requisition on June 25 for 822 companies of Central forces and we gave details. If the Central government (had) sent us the whole Central forces quickly, we (would have) deployed them more successfully… They were able to send only 660 companies till polling day.” According to sources, in sensitive areas like Bhangar and Arambagh, the Central forces reached after the completion of the polling process.
In its final order on Central forces, three days before polling, the Calcutta High Court had directed that the deployment at polling stations should be half and half, of state police and Central forces. It also said that “considering the extraordinary situation which led to issuance of direction for deployment of Central forces”, changes could be made to the number of personnel deployed.
The court also authorised Budakoti, as the coordinator of the Central forces, to issue appropriate directions to ensure that their personnel “cover all polling stations in the state.”
However, that seemed difficult from the start. As Budakoti wrote in a letter to the Home Ministry on Thursday, two days before polling, given the number of troops at his disposal, he would have to spread them out thin, meaning one personnel per polling station. “Keeping the present scenario in WB state, any kind of violence / booth capturing attempt can’t be overruled. A single CAPF personnel will not be able to take any action and there will be a life threat to that person,” Budakoti wrote.
After this, a formula was worked out to have a minimum of four personnel from Central forces, apart from four of state police, for a polling station that had up to two booths. Figuring this out, ensuring safety of men as well as covering all bases, also took time, leading to the delay, sources said.
TMC leader Kunal Ghosh said Central forces could not just wash their hands of what happened. The TMC has been pointing out that it lost the maximum cadres in Saturday’s violence, 12 out of the 15 dead were claimed to be belonging to the TMC. “Wasn’t deployment of Central forces the main demand of the Opposition? Now, why aren’t they being blamed for mishandling the entire voting process? Instead, the media is busy blaming the state government,” Ghosh said.
The Trinamool leaders also accused the Governor of West Bengal of fanning the flames of violence and abusing his power to influence people’s opinions. “The Governor has selectively visited victims from Opposition parties, despite the majority of deaths being Trinamool workers. Moreover, he’s delivering political speeches wherever he goes. Why is a nominated person influencing people’s opinion from a position of power?”
Ahead of the panchayat elections, the State Election Commission had identified 4,834 sensitive booths out of the 61,539 total and requested additional security. The Trinamool Congress alleges that the opposition targeted the non-sensitive booths to cause a disturbance. The opposition parties, including the BJP, Communist Party of India-Marxist, and the Congress, have also condemned the violence during the elections, blaming the Trinamool Congress government.
Till Saturday night, 12 deaths were reported in the violence that broke out in the State during the polling. Among them, nine were from the ruling TMC and one supporter each of the BJP, CPI(M) and Congress. However, different political parties claimed that the number of deaths was higher, totalling 18. TMC claimed nine of its members died in the violence, while the Congress claimed three of its supporters were killed. The BJP claimed two of its supporters died, and the CPI(M) also said that two of its members died. The political affiliation of two deceased could not be known.
The State Election Commission (SEC) said it has sought detailed reports on the deaths from the district magistrates (DMs). “We have asked the DMs to file reports on the deaths within 24 hours,” an official said.
A total of 73,887 seats in the state’s three-tier panchayat system went to the polls, with 2.06 lakh candidates in the fray. A voter turnout of 66.28 per cent, provisionally, was recorded, while 5.67 crore people living in the state’s rural areas were eligible to vote, officials said. Repolling was underway in 32 booths in Cooch Behar district’s Dinhata on Sunday, they said.