A Rather Undemocratic Situation in BJP-ruled Tripura's Rural Body Polls

Has the BJP won 70 percent of the seats uncontested due to the Opposition's failure in fielding candidates?

Even before the panchayat polls, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 4,805 seats uncontested out of the total 6,909 seats in the three-tier panchayat system of the northeastern state of Tripura. This number amounts to around 70 percent of the total seats.

In the gram panchayat level, BJP secured 4,550 unchallenged of the 6,370 seats — this corresponds to 71 percent. In the panchayat samiti level, the saffron party faced opposition in 235 of the 423 seats—around 56 percent.

Only in the Zilla Parishad level, the uppermost level is the number of winning seats unchallenged less than the gram panchayat and panchayat samiti levels. The BJP won 20 of 116 seats unopposed — 17 percent. So, at least there will be a fight at the Zilla Parishad level.

70% of Seats Uncontested Due to the Opposition’s Failure?

For a large number of winning uncontested seats, the BJP has come up with the usual explanation — that the Opposition parties, particularly the main Opposition Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Congress, lack organisational strength in the rural areas and so they have failed to put candidates in all seats.

There is some truth to the BJP’s claim. Both the CPM and the Congress lack booth-level workers in many booths. Opposition parties, due to their organisational weakness, failed to put up candidates in all seats.

No Difference Between TMC and BJP?

Wasn’t this argument that the Opposition was organisationally weak put forward by the ruling Trinamool Congress of West Bengal to brush aside the allegations of the Opposition parties, including BJP, Left and Congress?

The ruling TMC had registered victory in 12 percent of the seats uncontested, amid allegations of terror by the TMC cadres on the Opposition candidates and supporters. Let’s not forget that the same BJP had then alleged that Bengal’s ruling party was attacking the democracy of the state.

In BJP-ruled Tripura too, the Opposition parties, CPM and Congress, have alleged the same — that the ruling party cadres prevented Opposition candidates from filing nominations and later even pressured them to withdraw their nominations. CPM’s South Tripura Zilla Parishad candidate Badal Shill succumbed to injuries after he was attacked by miscreants, allegedly belonging to the BJP.

Then what’s the difference between TMC-ruled Bengal and BJP-ruled Tripura? The percentage of uncontested victories is much higher in Tripura than that of Bengal. At least the BJP can take solace in the fact that the scale of violence is lesser in Tripura than that of Bengal.

The BJP can provide its version of the facts, but it is evident that no contest in such a large number of seats weakens the state’s democracy. Public representatives didn’t even have to go through public scrutiny as a result of no contest. This goes against the spirit of democracy.

More than this, the allegations by the CPM and the Congress that their candidates weren’t allowed by the BJP supporters in many places, place a big question mark on the health of democracy in the state. Various news reports by the state media also point out that there is truth to the Opposition's allegations.

It is tradition to win unopposed in the panchayat polls — even during the CPM-led Left Front era, the Left used to win seats uncontested. To be fair, they never won unopposed on such a large scale. In the 2004 panchayat elections, the Left won 38 percent of the seats uncontested while in 2014, it secured around 15 percent of the seats unchallenged. In the 2009 panchayat elections, it emerged victorious unopposed only in 109 seats.

The Weakening of Democracy

It can be said that during the Left period, despite there being allegations of intimidation and attacks by Opposition parties, the electoral process wasn’t completely one-sided as unopposed victories were significantly lesser. The Opposition had agency and some amount of power. However, the scenario changed completely after the BJP came into power in 2018. Many Left representatives of the rural bodies defected to the new ruling party.

Half the seats were vacated. In the same year, when the by-polls were held for these vacant seats, the BJP, amid allegations of not allowing Opposition candidates to file nominations, registered victory in 96 percent of the seats uncontested — an unprecedented victory in the history of the state.

The same year, there were by-polls for civic bodies, where the saffron party secured 99.37 percent of seats, amid allegations of rigging by the Opposition parties. Of the 158 vacant seats, the ruling party had secured victory in 91 seats unopposed. Later in the 2019 panchayat body polls, the BJP went on to win 85 percent of the seats unopposed — another historical record!

Such attacks on democracy can only be compared with 1988-1993 when the state was under the rule of the Congress and the Tripura Upajati Juba Samiti. When this alliance came to power, the elected bodies were dissolved and there were no panchayat elections. This period was often associated with widespread violence against Opposition leaders and cadres.

There was hope that this scenario would change with Manik Saha, who replaced Biplab Deb in 2022 as the chief minister of the state. Though this year's situation showed some minor improvements in comparison to 2019, the ground reality remains the same.

When democracy has been attacked in the northeastern state of Tripura, the right-wing ecosystem in the country has surprisingly chosen to remain silent. This appears hypocritical as they are quick to comment upon West Bengal at any given opportunity. Is Tripura not significant for this ecosystem? Or are they silent because the attacks on democracy are happening under the watch of a BJP government?

The fact is that democracy, whether under TMC or BJP or any other party, cannot and should not, be a victim. Seems that the right-wing ecosystem, which often accuses the Left-Liberal ecosystem of remaining silent if democracy is attacked in a non-BJP-ruled state, is doing the same in the case of Tripura by remaining silent and ignoring the unfortunate developments happening in this northeastern state.

(Sagarneel Sinha is a political commentator and tweets @SagarneelSinha. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)