Bengal Polls, Day 1: West Midnapore – Was the Violence Scripted?

As wet travelled across the largely tribal-populated district, dissatisfaction with the ruling TMC was palpable.

The sporadic instances of low-key violence, voter intimidation and enlisting the support of the state police in West Midnapore by the Trinamool Congress, besieged with anti-incumbency, was probably scripted before this part of West Bengal went to the polls in the first phase of the assembly elections in the state today.

As The Quint travelled across the largely tribal-populated district west of Kolkata, dissatisfaction with the ruling Trinamool Congress was palpable. The areas which constitute a vast tribal population were the most helpless. While people from a particular area in Purulia have boycotted the elections, the indigenous people cannot even afford to do so for the fear of being branded as Maoists and anti-state.

Also read:
West Midnapore: In TMC’s Own Backyard, Tribal Discontent Simmers
Salboni, West Midnapore: Rice-Beer, Wild Boars & a Failed Industry

Even around Jhargram town, in West Midnapore district, speculation involving the Trinamool’s performance was abundant. As we reported earlier, soon after the Narada News sting op video went viral, posters mushroomed all over Jhargram, soon to be frenziedly taken down by Trinamool workers. Sukumar Hansda, a doctor by profession, and the TMC candidate was accused of laundering money.

The villages around the 4,300-acre abandoned Jindal steel project in Salboni are fed-up, tired and angry. The land can neither be cultivated nor is it being utilised by the factory. In conversation with residents living close by, one got a sense that if the Trinamool has to win, it would have to do so by taking recourse to some degree of musclepower.

Winning from those areas is a prestige issue for Mamata, who has confidently, and with huge amounts of pride, declared time and again how the Adivasis are with her. She has also published and distributed an election manifesto in Ol Chiki (the Santhal alphabet).

Despite all this, the only ‘poriborton’ in the district were roads, that too mostly constructed in the three-month run-up to the elections. The disenfranchised groups of the area have seen no change and are still subjected to fear tactics.

The first day of the first phase of polling in West Bengal is almost over. West Midnapore, Purulia and Bankura form the infamous Red Corridor, once a Maoist stronghold. Along with Bardhaman and Birbhum, they constitute West Bengal’s Jungle Mahals.

Throughout the day, several incidents of booth capturing, rigging, and violence were reported from West Midnapore.

In Shukantor, Salboni, the opposition party’s polling agent was threatened by a Trinamool cadre. When the presiding officer intervened, an argument ensued. Eventually, the accused Trinamool cadre was removed from the polling booth.

A Star Ananda and ABP reporter were attacked in Shaboni while reporting on booth capturing while one more journalist was held. They were beaten and their cameras snatched.

State police were accused of breaking rules, and going inside polling stations to record what kind of trends were being recorded throughout the state. The sizeable paramilitary presence, which we also encountered during our visit, somehow fizzled out during the election day, with no patrolling on the long stretch from Binpur to Dahijuri to Lalgarh.