Kolkata: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is looking to move the Supreme Court, seeking its intervention to tighten security for its candidates ahead of and during the coming panchayat elections in West Bengal.
On the third day of filing nominations, the state witnessed more violence across districts, following which opposition leaders met governor Keshari Nath Tripathi. State election officer A.K. Singh also met the governor after he was summoned to his official residence on Wednesday.
In New Delhi, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) lodged a complaint with home minister Rajnath Singh, alleging the governor had exceeded his brief.
However, even as the party raised questions about the governor’s political neutrality, a Trinamool Congress delegation will call upon him on Thursday.
BJP candidates are being attacked and intimidated every day, said Sayantan Basu, the party’s state general secretary in West Bengal. BJP state unit president Dilip Ghosh said his party would match the Trinamool Congress “blow for blow”.
Filing of nominations started on Monday. Anuj Sharma, additional director general of police (law and order) denied allegations that opposition parties were not able to file nominations. The Trinamool Congress had filed a total of 1,614 nominations, while opposition parties have filed 1,692 nominations, he said, even as he admitted to “sporadic violence”.
The BJP alone has filed 1,143 nominations, said Partha Chattopadhyay, a Trinamool Congress leader and minister. “It is a blatant lie that opposition parties are being stopped from filing nominations,” he said, adding that the BJP was playing the “communal card”. He alleged that the BJP was bringing in people from outside the state to stir unrest.
Referring to last week’s communal unrest in Asansol and Raniganj towns over Ram Navami celebrations, Sharma said people from neighbouring states were partly responsible for the violence in which several people died.
Thousands of seats go uncontested in every panchayat election in West Bengal. Around 7,000 candidates won without contest, both in 2008 and 2013.
On Monday night, a person identified as Mizanur Rahman was killed in Malda district after he was caught in a cross-fire between two groups. His family alleged the skirmish was due to an internal feud within the Trinamool Congress, but Arnab Ghosh, superintendent of police of the district, denied that Rahman was killed in political violence, adding that some of the accused persons had already been detained.
Amid escalating tension, chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s image is at stake as she seeks to take centre stage in national politics ahead of the 2019 general election, said a political analyst in Kolkata, who asked not to be named. “There’s nothing new in what we are witnessing,” he said. “But this time, she will be judged nationally for governance.”