It is an election season and West Bengal is in the news for all the wrong reasons. There is violence. And more violence. Phase after phase, rally after rally, week after week. The state sends 42 MPs to the Lok Sabha and this time, election to these is being held in seven phases. Every phase has had its own share of headlines for violence that was unleashed on and around the polling day. Murders, clashes, stonepelting, lathicharge, firing, arson, you name it and some corner of West Bengal witnessed it in this election season. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Trinamool Congress and the Left parties have been accusing each other of attacking and murdering their workers and supporters. This cycle of accusations and counter-accusations did not come up all of a sudden. But in the immediate context, it started in the run-up to the panchayat elections that were held in West Bengal last year. Media reports suggest that nearly 50 people died during these elections. When the Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal was accused of having failed to curb election-time violence last year, TMC’s Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brien in a tweet said: “To all ‘newborn’ experts on Bengal #PanchayatElections in State have a history. 400 killed in poll violence in 1990s in CPI(M) rule. 2003: 40 dead. Every death is a tragedy. Now closer to normal than earlier times. Yes, few dozen incidents. Say, 40 out of 58,000 booths. What’s %age? (sic).” On Tuesday, BJP president Amit Shah’s rally in Kolkata was marred by violence as clashes broke out between TMC and BJP workers. What worsened the situation (by hurting cultural sentiments) was that a bust of Bengal icon Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar was vandalised in the mayhem. But this election season has seen graver violence. On February 10, sitting TMC MLA from Krishnaganj,Satyajit Biswas, was not shot dead from point-blank range in West Bengal’s Nadia district. The TMC held BJP responsible for this murder, while the BJP rubbished it saying Biswas was probably killed due to infighting in TMC. On March 28, a BJP leader’s brother was allergedly murdered in Malda district. The BJP accused the TMC for this. The past one year was witness to such political violence where workers/supporters of TMC, BJP, Congress and the Left were attacked or killed in the state. The victims in these cases were mostly ground-level workers who were students, teachers, labourers, farmers, agricultural workers and small shopkeepers. But is election-time violence new to the political fabric of West Bengal?
