On April 20, as the whole country watched, the Calcutta High Court directed the State Election Commission to announce new dates for the panchayat elections in West Bengal. The elections were to have been held in three phases from May 1 to May 5, with the counting set for May 8.
What happened?
When the nomination process began on April 2, there was unprecedented violence in many districts, with allegations that workers of the ruling Trinamool Congress had prevented members of the Opposition parties from filing papers.
In Birbhum district, for example, for 42 seats in the zilla parishad, Opposition parties could file nominations for only one seat, making the Trinamool Congress a winner even before the completion of the election process.
Why did it land in court?
As reports of violence poured in, the Opposition parties approached courts. After an order from the Supreme Court which called for allaying the concerns of those who could not file nominations, the State Election Commission on April 9 extended the process by another day.
However, the next day, at the intervention of the State government, the State Election Commission reversed its own order.
This prompted the Opposition to take legal recourse once again. On April 12, the Calcutta High Court stayed the election process and on April 20, it directed the State Election Commission to reschedule the election.
What was the extent of violence?
To give two examples, the five-time MP of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Ram Chandra Dome, suffered head injuries allegedly at the hands of Trinamool Congress workers in Birbhum, while accompanying candidates to file nominations. In adjoining Purulia district, veteran CPI(M) leader and nine-time MP Basudev Acharya was hospitalised following an attack while leading a rally of candidates for nomination.
What led to no-contests?
The data provided by the State Election Commission on April 9 show that the Opposition parties could not field candidates in a large number of seats across the State in all the three tiers: gram panchayat, panchayat samity and zilla parishad.
At the gram panchayat level, the BJP could file nominations for 57.12 % of the 48,650 seats. The Left parties had put up candidates in 40.52 % of the seats and the Congress nominees could file nominations only in 14.87% seats. Similarly, at the tier-two level of panchayat samities, BJP candidates filed nominations for 64.57% of the seats, the Left parties 52.11% and the Congress for 17.85%. A scrutiny of the data reveals that almost 27% of the gram panchayat seats and 24% of the panchayat samity seats are likely to be won by the Trinamool Congress without contest.
Even during the three decades of Left Front rule, when it won the panchayat elections with ease, the margin of victory was not so one-sided. In 2003, the Left Front won 11% of the seats without contest.
Why are the elections important?
The panchayat elections in the State are not only crucial to its politics but it has also been a model for decentralisation and grass-roots democracy.
The first three-tier panachayat elections in the State were conducted in 1978, long before the three-tier panchayats were established in the country through constitutional amendments.
About 5.08 crore voters, who comprise 74% of the entire electorate of the State, are eligible to exercise their franchise across 20 districts. The Trinamool Congress controls almost all of the rural bodies at present and has an advantage over the Opposition parties in the upcoming election.
However, the start of the election process, when the Opposition parties have alleged that their nominees were not allowed to file nominations, raises questions as to how free and fair the elections will turn out to be.
