So-called national media is out to frustrate the efforts going on in forming a united platform of parties opposed to the Left Front, the ruling conglomerate of West Bengal, for fighting the ensuing assembly election. But the fact remains that people of the state want a coalition or an alliance of the opposition parties, i.e. Trinamool Congress, Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party, to fight the election on one-to-one basis so that the Left Front could be ousted from power. But the Congress is in no mood to honour the sentiments of the people as it wants to continue in centre on the crutches of Left Front.
Knowing fully well that Congress would not come into such an alliance, both Trinamool and BJP are still trying for it as the compelling situation demands such an alliance to oust the Left Front from power. The Election Commission in West Bengal has taken a number of steps to frustrate the rigging process which was being pursued by the ruling conglomerate uninterruptedly in each and every election. Some of the steps taken by the Commission are: a) It had deleted more than 13 lakh names of fake voters from the voters? list, b) it has already made arrangements to deploy para military forces in voting booths, c) in every polling booth there will be video camera to record the situation, d) no one will be allowed to stand in the queue without photo identity card, e) no other identity card, i.e. ration card, driving license, passport, etc, will be accepted, f) writing on the wall to publicise the party and the candidate is prohibited, etc.
There was a report that one very senior police officer who has retired from his post a few years ago has been appointed as OSD and he was allotted a room in Writers? Building, the secretariat of West Bengal Government. It was alleged that his job was to manipulate and manoeuver the left-minded civil and police officers and deploy them in vulnerable (doubtful seats for LF) polling centres. The Election Commission acted upon this allegation and shifted this officer from Writers? Building with a direction that he cannot hold any meeting of officers where election would be discussed. Apparently, CPM is very much upset with this type of steps taken by the Election Commission. On the other hand, the opposition parties and the people in general are very much happy about this development. However, people are not sure about the emerging situation as the CPM has got tremendous influence on the central government. The former Chief Minister of the state Shri Jyoti Basu is very much in the arena for playing a dirty game. On December 24, 2005, a Kolkata-based daily newspaper The Statesman wrote in its editorial under the caption ?Perverted Wish? the following passage: ?Even at 92, Jyoti Basu'spotential for mischief remains unbounded. Within a span of 10 days, he made identical appeals from two platforms. He first urged the policemen attending the annual meeting of CPI(M) dominated state Non-Gazetted Police Karmachari Samity, to fulfill his ?last wish? by ensuring a resounding victory for the CPI(M) in next year'sassembly poll. A seventh successive win would help him die in peace, he said. At another party forum in North 24 Parganas (a district of WB) Basu urged his party men to make clean sweep of 28 seats in the district. Here, too, he expressed his ?last wish? to ?capture? all the eight seats (of the district) held by the opposition so that we reign supreme.? This has been the Basu'sstyle of provocating and instigating cadres-police alike. So long this was the rule. But now, people hope for something different as the Election Commission'srole is proactive.
So far as the opposition alliance is concerned, Congress has already backed out on its hackneyed plea that if BJP is there in the alliance it cannot associate with that. Hence, it left. Now among two parties, i.e. BJP and Trinamool, negotiation is still going on. Trinamool has already declared a list of 201 candidates. Only 93, seats are left. Among this 93 Trinamool wanted to allot 70 seats to Congress and 23 to BJP. Now that the situation has changed after the leaving of Congress from the alliance, Mamata allotted another 10 seats to BJP. Only in three allotted seats there is prospect for a BJP win. But among these three seats two are reserved for SC/ST and one seat is reserved for woman. If these three seats are won by BJP, the presence of this party in the assembly cannot be felt as the candidates are all very simple and not so flamboyant. All other seats allocated to it are either in areas where BJP has no organisational set up or the areas are infested with heterogeneous elements that are basically anti-BJP. Both the leaders and ranks of BJP are very much upset and infuriated with this kind of attitude of Trinamool Congress.
