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Huge security deployment for panchayat polls

Amid a spurt in political clashes and heightened tension, an unprecedented security arrangement awaits the fifth panchayat elections in West Bengal to be held on May 28.

According to official sources, steady reports of violence involving rival political parties from all districts continued to pour in, keeping the administration on maximum alert.

About 180,000 security forces fanned out to different districts five days before the polls today, to ensure a peaceful election.

The polls are being held for about 59,000 gram panchayat seats under a changed political scenario, with the anti-Left combination of the Trinamul Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party throwing a challenge for the first time to the grassroots popularity of the ruling Left Front.

Notwithstanding the record of landslide victories in the previous panchayat elections, the Left Front this time appears defensive. It is making an all-out effort for unity among its partners in a bid to frustrate any invasion into the rural belt by its emboldened opponents. The TC-BJP combine emerged as a formidable force after the general election, pulling off a series of upsets in urban and semi-urban areas.

As the Congress has been relegated to a distant third place, losing a major votebank to the breakaway party led by Mamata Banerjee, the focus shifted from the traditional Left Front-Congress rivalry with the Trinamul-BJP claiming to have formed the real anti-Left force in the state.

According to official sources, in a charged-up situation, at least 17 people were killed and about 250 injured in sporadic clashes in the past two months.

Home Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said nine of those killed belonged to the CPI-M while the rest were Trinamul Congress workers.

Banerjee alleged that the ruling front had unleashed a "reign of terror" in which at least 33 workers of her party had been killed.

Banerjee has even called a 12-hour statewide bandh on Monday, May 25, to protest against "CPI-M atrocities."

The home minister, on the other hand, accused Banerjee of being responsible for the situation as, he said, Trinamul supporters went on the offensive in most of the cases.

With allegations and counter-allegations going on, the administration has chalked out an elaborate arrangement for deployment of about 180,000 security personnel besides central forces for the elections.

Home secretary Manish Gupta said of the 38,000 polling booths, 17,000 had been identified as either highly sensitive or sensitive.

He said the government had sought 70 companies of paramilitary forces from the Centre to strengthen the security arrangements.

However, the Centre had so far sanctioned only 20 companies, which were scheduled to arrive on June 26.

UNI

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