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West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee addresses a state government programme organised to celebrate the completion of one year of the party's victory in West Bengal for the third term, in Kolkata. (PTI)A week after Trinamool Congress (TMC) chairperson and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said at a meeting of the party’s national working committee in Kolkata that she would not tolerate any violence during the panchayat elections, party functionaries said she would tour districts to meet panchayat and booth-level workers and drive home the message.
In the 2018 panchayat polls, the TMC won 35 per cent of the seats uncontested but faced allegations of large-scale violence and rigging. The following year, the ruling party’s performance in the Lok Sabha elections took a hit, with the BJP winning 18 parliamentary constituencies — its best-ever performance in the general elections in West Bengal. After the Assembly elections last year, the TMC again faced allegations of perpetrating widespread violence against BJP workers and the cases related to the violence went to the Central Bureau of Investigation following the Calcutta High Court’s directions.
According to party insiders, the CM is concerned about a similar fallout of recent violence on the 2024 Lok Sabha election results. In recent months, the murder of student leader Anis Khan, the intra-TMC conflict in Birbhum that left 10 people dead, and a rape case in Nadia in which a local TMC leader’s son has been arrested have brought the ruling party bad press.
At the May 5 meeting in Kolkata, it was decided that the chief minister would kick-start the tour of districts with visits to Medinipur and Jhargram from May 10, but the tour was rescheduled to May 17-19 because of Cyclone Asani.
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“This year under any circumstances, both Mamata and Abhishek Banerjee (CM’s nephew and TMC MP) are not ready to allow violence in panchayat elections. They were not happy with the violence that occurred in the recent civic polls,” a senior TMC leader told The Indian Express.
The party functionary added, “Mamata Banerjee wants the party to win absolute majority in the panchayat elections but without resorting to violence and bloodshed. She announced she would meet lower-level leaders of the party in each district from this month. This is because she wants to know how the district organisations are working if there are internal fights, and whether they are ready for the panchayat elections or not. If Mamata Banerjee gets feedback that the party cannot ensure there is no violence during the panchayat elections, she will prefer to defer it to a time after the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. But she does not want that. At any cost, she does not violence because it may affect the Lok Sabha elections.”
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