Bombs, beatings and bloodshed: It's business as usual in Bengal during third phase of polling

The third phase of the West Bengal assembly elections on Thursday witnessed death, violence, bloodshed, intimidation and bombs.

Tuhidan Mandal, a polling agent for the Communist Party of India (Marxist) candidate from Domkal was killed by the “TMC Pradhan” according to his family. News reports suggested that Mandal was first attacked with bombs and his face slashed open from ear to mouth. He was then bludgeoned before being shot dead.

The attack happened within sight of a polling station, where central security forces were deployed to maintain the peace and fulfil the Election Commission’s pledge of ensuring free, fair and peaceful elections. An observer who visited the booth reportedly said “all is well”, maintaining that voting was going on “smoothly” inside the polling station.

As alarming as the incident was, bombs and death indicate business as usual during Bengal elections. On Thursday, innovative contraptions of packed explosives with stone chips and iron shavings, described as “Shishi boma” (bottled bombs) were used, as were the more conventional and widely found explosives and splinters tied up in jute string.

These were used on voter queues outside polling stations in Domkal. Elsewhere, in Cossipore, Ketugram, Ghayeshpur, and Beleghata, beatings, bombs and intimidation started early in the day amid polling for 62 seats. Four CPM workers were injured in violence in different places.

Under her thumb

It’s difficult to miss the inference of a link between local kingpins and the ruling party. In most places, the masterminds of the violence seem to enjoy an immunity that the police cannot take away, even under orders from the Election Commission.

In Cossipore, a constituency in North Kolkata, a local Trinamool Congress leader recently out on bail escaped from surveillance ordered by the Election Commission, for which a contingent of local police was posted at his door. Anwar Khan disappeared shortly after he was heard directing his men to step up the voting and raise the “percentage”.

The escape acts performed by Trinamool Congress leaders in this election point to a police force that cannot keep the ruling party in check. Before Anwar Khan, the notorious Anubrata Mandal of Birbhum had escaped from police surveillance on April 17.

In many ways, these events confirm Mamata Banerjee’s confident assertion about police personnel and bureaucrats transferred by the Election Commission.

 We are all one family. The boys are all my people. Transfers and postings are temporary. Their mindset will not change. Whoever is replaced, the one to follow will have the same mindset.  

The chief minister’s grip on “her people” is very evident. She got West Bengal chief secretary Basudeb Banerjee to reply to questions from the Election Commission that are not in his domain.

Obvious intentions

The choice for the voter in West Bengal is seemingly reduced to either pressing the button and supporting the Trinamool Congress, or paying for disobeying the orders issued by men like Anwar Khan, who see themselves as masterminds, directing the speed and number of votes that are to be polled on his turf.

The pattern of Thursday’s violence is likely to continue over the next three phases of voting.

The staging of violence, the use of bombs, and chasing away voters from polling stations serve only one purpose: clickbait for the Trinamool Congress. In Murshidabad, Burdwan, and Kolkata, the killing of Tuhidal Mandal, the injuries inflicted, the bombs despite heavy deployment of police and central security forces, point to a contempt for the institutions of democracy by a ruling party that is prepared to use violence to inform the voter that there is only one choice.

While the Trinamool Congress has issued strong denials, the link to violence with the purpose of disrupting voting as well as access to voting centres is glaringly obvious.