Going strong

It is advantage Left Front, as rural Bengal appears not to have lost its confidence in the CPI(M)-led government.

DHAMALIPARA is a tiny flood-prone village in Behrampur. Tahima Bibi stood outside her tiny thatched hut watching a procession of campaigners march by requesting votes for their candidate. When asked by Frontline who she would vote for, she said: "CPI(M)."

Why?

"They are the only ones who care for poor people like us and are doing very good work all over the country." But what do you think they will be able to do for your village and its problems? "Is it enough just to think of my village and my problems?"

This statement came from a woman who knows neither her date of birth, nor how to sign her name. This kind of awareness is not an isolated case. Travelling through rural West Bengal today it becomes clear that for the poor their village is no longer the world; in fact it is quite the other way round.

It also becomes clear that the West Bengal countryside is leaning heavily towards the Left as far as this Assembly election is concerned. Even in places where the Opposition holds sway, there is a perceptible shift among the people in their political preference.

Kaita village in Murshidabad is supposed to be traditionally pro-Congress, but a considerable section of the youth has a different story to tell. Jalaluddin Sheikh, 18, told Frontline: "Though this is a Congress belt, we don't see any point in voting for them anymore. There has been no development in this village and now we are facing a drought-like situation." Manwar, 22, said: "Practically every youth in our village is unemployed. Some are even graduates. Our only hope is if the Communist Party of India (Marxist) wins in this belt. Maybe then there will be some development for us."

It is not just the youth of the rural belt; in Kolkata too, a city which has traditionally been anti-establishment, the drive to attract industrial investment initiated by Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Industry Minister Nirupam Sen, which has opened up employment opportunities has managed to capture the imagination of young voters. If the results of the Lok Sabha elections and the latest municipal elections are anything to go by, the outcome is a forgone conclusion. Kingshuk Niyogi, a 33-year-old freelance writer, said: "In spite of their deficiencies, they [the Left] are miles ahead of the others in the playing field. More and more young people are now willing to vote for the Left, not just for the ideology but because they are the only ones providing the youth with some kind of hope. The Opposition is merely confusing us. There is no constructive alternative that they have come up with."

Another important factor highlighted repeatedly by the people of the State, especially in the countryside, is the image the Left has maintained of not being a fair-weather friend appearing only before the elections. It has managed to integrate itself completely into the lives of the rural people. Rafi Ahmed, a tea-stall owner in a tiny village of Bardhaman, said: "This whole district is Lal Baba [affectionate name for the CPI(M)]. No other party has a chance here."

The people of the village have no faith in any other party other than the CPI(M). Mustapha Habib, 26, put it thus: "There is no unity in the Opposition, and the Congress has no credibility. The Left is always there for us." Barring just a couple of houses, the entire village forms the vote-bank of the Left. For all the love they profess for the CPI(M), they admit that the living condition in the village is far from ideal. The power situation is terrible and in most evenings there is no electricity. The conditions of roads are bad and there are no good hospitals for nearly 30 km. "Yet, despite all this, the CPI(M) is the only viable alternative we have. After all, in times of need, they are always there beside us," said Hidai Sheikh, a 50-year-old farmer.

This feeling for the party, prevalent almost all over the rural belt of West Bengal, alone wins half the battle for the Left. In Murshidabad district's Fakirpara village, Gulehara Begum and her daughter-in-law Ainur said: "The CPI(M) is like our relative."

These are the results of the organisational ability of the party. The CPI(M) started campaigning months ahead of the other parties. On January 8, even before the dates of the Assembly elections were finalised, Jyoti Basu, the nonagenarian patriarch of the party, addressed a gathering of at least 15 lakh people at the Brigade Parade Ground in Kolkata, kick-starting the campaign. He said: "The people of this State have created history by electing the Left Front to power six times in a row, and they will not let us down this time either. This history they have created is unique not just in India, but in the whole world." The former Chief Minister concluded: "I don't know how much longer I will be around, but what I would like to see is the Left Front coming back to power for the seventh successive time."

This election is unique in not just the fact that it is held in five phases, but in the singularly unconventional nature of campaigning. With the Election Commission's strict ban on the use of posters, wall-writing and loudspeakers, the political parties have come up with unique ways to spread their messages. Campaigners are seen literally wearing their party colours on their sleeves. T-shirts, overalls and caps worn by party supporters on motorbikes and bicycles have taken the place of posters; colourful and witty leaflets and pamphlets are doing the work of loudspeakers; in some areas voters are even treated to small gifts such as hand-made table calendars and shopping bags with pictures of the local candidate. In some places, even CDs are being distributed, highlighting the parties' achievements and promises. Although many of these ingenuities owe their origin to the restrictions imposed by the Election Commission and its army of observers, it has done a lot of good indirectly. For one thing, although the festive mood has somewhat abated, the new methods of electioneering are in a way indicative of the maturity of the electorate. For, as in the Western democracies, voters are more and more dependent upon the media and they go by the performance of the parties, rather than catchy slogans.

Days before the first phase of the election began in the Maoist-affected districts of Bankura, Purulia and West Medinipur, campaigning in the region reached a crescendo as top leaders flocked there. Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee toured the three districts, exhorting the people to come out and vote without fear of naxalites. He said extremism in the region would be dealt with firmly and its spread checked by implementing socio-economic development projects. CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Brinda Karat was also in Bankura and Purulia, where she addressed two rallies. Trinamul Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee accompanied by senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Arun Jaitley, addressed a gathering in Bankura district. She criticised the Congress for splitting the anti-Left vote. "Voting for the Congress is as good as voting for the CPI(M)," she said.

Although the top brass of the Congress and the Trinamul Congress-BJP alliance dismiss all possibilities and claims of a united Opposition against the Left, in many places grassroots workers of the parties have disregarded all instructions from their bosses, to forge an understanding between themselves to defeat the Left. In constituencies in the districts where both the Trinamul Congress-BJP and the Congress have fielded candidates, there is hardly any campaigning against each other; the target of attack is almost always the Left. In Ranaghat West constituency in Nadia district, Trinamul Congress candidate Tapas Ghosh, in his campaign rounds, attacks the CPI(M): "Theirs is politics of lies. They have duped small farmers and the poor of the State alike." The sitting MLA of the region is Shankar Sinha of the Congress, and there is absolutely no mention of him or his party in Ghosh's tirade. But when asked, he denied officially any kind of adjustment with the Congress. "Our leader Mamata Banerjee tried to form a combined force against the Left, but the Congress did not want it. Now there is no question of an understanding," he told Frontline.

Such "unofficial" understanding - a `mini-jot' (small alliance), exists in almost all districts. In Hooghly district, Congress worker Nirmal Kumar Majhi admitted to Frontline that in the industrial township of Dunlop, there was an understanding between the Congress and the Trinamul Congress. "In the likely case of withdrawal by one of these, there will be a close fight. Otherwise, the Left will sail through, benefiting from the division of votes." When questioned on the defiance of the Congress high command, Majhi said: "Whatever the top bosses say, it is we the little men who pay the price."

However, this kind of understanding may backfire on the Opposition, as is evident from the reaction of different sections of the electorate. Moinuddin, a 65-year-old farmer of Birohi in the Haringhata constituency of Nadia district, has always voted Congress, but this time he is not sure.

"The Congress people came to me and told me to vote for the Trinamul Congress candidate. How can I vote for a party that is allied with the BJP?" he said.

Meanwhile, on April 17, the first phase of polling and the exit polls that followed immediately vindicated the position taken all along by the Left Front in a way and belied the calumny of its detractors. The projection of seats that the exit polls suggest - 43 out of the total 45 seats in the three districts - is again indicative of an overall two-thirds majority or more, as anticipated by the Chief Minister in his election address.

It must be mentioned that these three districts were affected in part by the naxalite menace and in many villages there was a call for boycotting the polls. Interestingly, the same areas reported more than 70 per cent turnout, defying the extremists' warning. It is likely that in North Bengal also, where some separatist forces are at work, the voice of the people will prevail.

The unique feature this time was that the security arrangements, the surveillance by the Election Commission, and the precautionary measures were all unprecedented and according to all participants in the process - the Left Front, the Trinamul-BJP, the Congress, and the Election Commission - were all very satisfactory. The poll has been reported to be free, fair and peaceful everywhere.

One wonders that if in spite of all that, the Left Front romps back with an even greater margin than last time, where will the Opposition find a suitable scapegoat?