A hidden ally between the saffron party and the Communists is a reality in ground zero in this year’s Panchayat Election in West Bengal.
#”Where’s my ‘Muri – Chop (popular rural desert in Bengal)’, haven’t you brought mine one,” cried Subol Ruidas, a CPI-M cadre of Amlajora Panchayat area in East Burdwan and he’s responded immediately- “Ehere had you been so long? Three more packets are on the way,” by Ramesh Ghosh of BJP. Subol washing his hands answered: “I was giving a finishing touch to the lotus on the wall.”
#CPI-M cadres were painting sickle & hammer on a wall at Madanpur village in Andal but the red paint was exhausted. The BJP cadres shared their box immediately.
# At Loa village in Galsi – 1, CPI-M’s Hiru Bagdi was screaming on a call to Chandan Vaidyakar of BJP after goons allegedly backed by the Trinamool Congress attacked a mixed group of CPI-M, BJP while labeling posters.
These are just not stray sequences, rather are common consequences Bengal villages have been witnessing here and there in this year’s Panchayat Election – the phoenix moment the BJP and the CPI-M have ‘chosen’ to form a ‘grand tangle’ of secret ally in the grassroot.
“TMC’s unrelenting terror forced many to come closer irrespective of the known political bonds in the rural hamlets where the police always pose as a ‘slave of Mamata Banerjee’s party’ all the way,” said Shantanu Mukherjee, Youth Morcha president of BJP’s Asansol district.
The fall of CPI-M twelve years ago and it’s ever failing consecutive attempts to raise it’s head further over the years was conducively concomitant with the rise of BJP in Bengal and the political ‘war strategy’ in rural Bengal in this year’s Panchayat Election has further revealed this when the parties have withdraw candidates after gauging the strength per square inch of village demography and mindset.
Sanjoy Das, BJP’s local president in Booth No: 17 at Amarpur village in Ausgram of East Burdwan, was seen painting CPI-M’s symbol with his party men.
“He’s our man but on that Booth, he chose to mobilise voters for the left candidate,” said Mrityunjoy Chandra, district secretary of BJP. In Bankura’s Ranibandh, Kalipada Mahato is the CPI-M candidate for Rajakata Panchayat Samiti seat and he sent his son Mohitish to fight against TMC on a BJP ticket in the neighbouring seat.
“This is a cozy migration and colour doesn’t matter in rural areas every time when the goal is to dismantle the TMC,” said Ajit Pati, CPI-M district secretary in Bankura.
In East and West Burdwan, the BJP and the CPI-M have withdrawn 81, 63 and 192, 77 Gram Panchayat candidates and 13, 20 and 30, 10 Panchayat Samiti candidates respectively to ensure a one-to-one fight against TMC. In the 2018 Panchayat Election, the TMC had won 63 percent GP seats and 59 percent PS seats uncontested in West Burdwan, this year it dramatically came down to 22.8 per cent and 10 per cent respectively.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in recent times has sharpened her attack on the Opposition after her party estimated about the ‘secret ally’ at ground zero where the mixture of candidates raised the eyebrows especially due to the contrasting ideologies of the CPI-M and the BJP.
“It’s not tough due to TMC’s corruption and terror,” said Raman Sharma, district Vice President of BJP in East Burdwan. “It’s well known how the CPI-M had voted for the BJP in 2019 and 2021 polls. We count this alliance as a conglomeration of the opportunists. It’s simply like that and nothing else,” described TMC’s district president in East Burdwan Rabindranath Chatterjee.