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ELECTIONS '96

Bihar's electoral characteristics also found in Bengal

There is unity, apparently, even in political diversity.

How much more diverse can you get, socially, or politically, than Bihar and West Bengal? And yet, in both states, there is this uncanny similiarity -- of fierce contests between friends turned arch enemies, leading to situations where the third contestant is the real beneficiary.

In Bihar, it is the split in the Janata Dal that has forced such contests, with JD stalwarts taking on their erstwhile friends now opposing them on the RJD ticket. In West Bengal, it is the Congress that fractured, leading to clashes between official party candidates and those belonging to Mamata Bannerjee's breakaway Trinamul Congress -- the beneficiary in this instance being the CPI-M.

And yes, there is one other similarity -- the triangular battles are being settled through violence.

Nowhere is the contest keener than in South Calcutta, where the TC's firebrand president Mamata Bannerjee is opposing Congress candidate Saugata Roy and Prasanta Sur of the CPI-M.

The real loser is the Congress which, prior to the Mamata revolt, anticipated a direct clash with the CPI-M. The presence of the TC has led to an obvious fracturing of the Congress votebank -- and, as a result, cued Congress leaders into launching embittered, and increasingly outspoken, attacks on Bannerjee and her outfit.

And it is not all verbal either -- thus, Bannerjee was reportedly stoned while campaigning in the Ballygunge area and came away with injuries on her calves.

"Did you see how Congress and CPI-M goondas are trying to terrorise me?" she asked me, while making a brief pit stop along with her entourage near CIT Scheme, on Rash Behari Avenue, on Thursday.

Why does she suppose she is being targetted? "Because both the parties are frightened by the growing popularity of our Trinamul Congress," she says.

Bannerjee's long-standing rival and state Congress president Somen Mitra, however, dismisses the stone-throwing incident as "bad playacting". Mitra says that TC activists have, at Bannerjee's urging, been making it a practise to heckle Congress workers, and even resorted to throwing bottles and other misguided missiles at Congress meetings, and that the stone throwing incident was merely the retaliation of a frustrated section of Congress workers.

laughed away suggestions that the Congress and the CPI-M, arch foes in the state's polity, had covertly agreed to shelve their differences for now and jointly deal with the Bannerjee threat. "How can this be possible? For one thing, Mamata over-rates herself, and for another, it is a long standing Congress policy to root out the CPI-M from the state."

TC workers for their part allege that both the Congress and the CPI-M are importing muscle to attack TC workers. "Mamataji has all the details," claims Anirban Biswas, one of their number.

Interestingly, the Tposia-Tiljala area, where the stoning throwing occurred, is a hardcore Marxist stronghold, notorious for harbouring criminals and other anti-social elements. "These criminals have been hired by the Congress to stop me from campaigning," Bannerjee alleged.

This air of derring-do is gaining for Mamata Bannerjee cult status among the younger voters. However, the 30-and-above segment appear to consider her something of a flash in the political pan. "Sonia, Mamata, they are all alike, it makes no difference to us, we will vote for Surda, the government in the state has done much for our people," heatedly argues housewife Tuhina Mukhopadyay.

However, this blanket endorsement of the ruling party in the state needs to be set against the astounding walkout, on Thursday, of a majority of the audience at Chief Minister Jyoti Basu's election meeting at Jangipur, in Murshidabad district. The walkout was pointed, the message conveyed by those who rose en masse and exited as the CM began his oration unmistakable -- evidently, there is an undercurrent of disenchantment with the ruling Left Front.

The incident, of course, is being highlighted by the Congress leadership with ill-concealed glee. "Jyotibabu's game is over," says local Congress leader Nitai Ghosh, with evident satisfaction.

The Congress glee, though, would appear to be both premature, and ill-placed -- for indications are that any anti-Left sentiment is benefitting not the Congress, but the breakaway TC.

At least, that is the situation in the Calcutta South constituency, where Bannerjee herself is contesting. Whether it is the same in the other constituencies wherein the fledgling party is taking on both the Congress and the CPI-M remains to be seen.

Elections '98

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