WEST BENGAL ELECTION SCHEDULE

MAMATA RALLIES BEHIND HER UTTERANCES AT NANDIGRAM

Nandigram,14th March: Mamata Banerjee accompanied by truck-and-jeep loads of strong arm ‘supporters’ descended on Nandigram on 14 March. The small field at Hazarakata where she chose to address her faithful was not even one-third full as very few of the local folks would venture out at the fearsome sight of the kind of people accompanying her. The Maoists looked crestfallen. Mamata said interesting things. A few gems of samplers amongst many follow.

- ‘There would no PCPIR allowed at Nayachar even if “Rakesh Roshan” [father of actor Hritik Roshan] again visits the moon:’ Mamata also, in this connection, related at some detail the discussion that “Rakesh Roshan” allegedly had with the late Indira Gandhi from the moon. [What she tried to refer to of course, and in her own unique way, was the name of Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma of the IAF who had accompanied a US space mission when Indira Gandhi was the PM].
- ‘Another reason why the PCPIR would never be allowed to come up is that chemicals damage the eye, and I have proof of this.’
- “Even as I speak, the CPM is firing at us, across from Khejuri, only the sound is not heard”
- ‘CPM shall be upturned’ [?] if ‘Muslims stop running after them’
- Here is my manifesto [showing a thick bound book], but I shall not show it to you [smiles] as I have not read it myself
- The NREGA programme of late has been made dysfunctional in Midnapore east [where most GPs are run by her outfit].

The list is long and confusing and her sayings go on and on and on until we see the smattering of the local people who had made a late appearance quietly do a discreet disappearing act. The corporate media stay on as we make good our exit.

CPI (M) LEADER ESCAPES MINE BLAST AT LALGARH

Lalgarh: Isolated they might be from the masses, the Maoists have kept up the tradition of viciously executed planned individual assassination of CPI (M) leaders and workers, supporters and sympathisers, a practice that was indulged in with impunity by their predecessors the Naxalites of the turbulent and anarchic Bengal of the 1970s.

As Chandi Karan, local committee secretary of the Belatikari unit of the CPI (M) at Lalgarh later was to say later, voice firm, back straight, “Twenty seconds late and I would have been pulverised by the land mine that blasted away a large part of the road over which I had driven my motorbike”.

Nonetheless, what the brave comrade did not disclose was the sight that we saw with the motorcycle lying flung to a distance of more than a hundred yards, on the red clay sandy soil, from the large, deep, ragged hole in the ground, and the lacerations, deep and bleeding on Chandi’s body, his shirt torn to ribbons.

The CP (Maoists) later claimed that they had blasted the land mine on the day, 13 March, to kill as they put it, an ‘enemy of the people.’ The attackers, said the villagers, were five in number and that they made well their escape following the dud explosion by running away towards Kantapahari, another Maoist haven in Midnapore west, offered to the assassins from across the border, by the local Trinamul Congress chieftains.

The police later made enquiries, and found that the local comrades have already and quickly enough, discovered and tore up from a shallow cut on the ground, a long length of coaxial cable with which the land mine had been triggered off. The blast pattern was the same as had been tried unsuccessfully on Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee just over a month back away at Purulia, perhaps by the same faction of Maoist killers.

Elsewhere at Nandigram the next day, a sad sight was unearthed when the severely disfigured body of a CPI (M) worker, face made a mass of flesh wounds through repeated acidic burns, hands and feet smashed, spine twisted out of shape, Subol Kajli (32) who was very apparently tortured for an excruciatingly long time, long before being finally killed with a shot through the side of the head, was found stripped to the flesh, on the char land of the Haldi River. Comrade Subol had been forcibly taken away by Trinamuli hoods and their Maoist minders back on 7 march.

Comrade Subol had been out of his native village, out of his familiar soft, green surrounds of the Southkhali hamlet where he had been born and brought up, for a pretty long, harshly long time, away from his small family, well-knit, loving. Subol had crept back inside what is now a marauder-reigned Nandigram 1 on 7 March itself and had gone to his humble hutment. He was taken away at the dead of the night as his wife screamed in vain for help.

Subol joins the long list of CPI (M) workers who had been kidnapped by the Maoists-Trinamulis after they exerted their hold on the GPs at Midnapore east- so many familiar faces: Chanchal Midda, Mohitosh Karan et al.

Both incidents saw people come out in their thousands early enough in a show of solidarity to the Party and the class struggle the Party and the masses faced in the western and southern parts of Bengal. Biman Basu has condemned the incidents and has again asked the CPI(M) workers to move around with revolutionary discretion.

TRINAMUL GOONS KILLS CPI (M) LEADER AT JAIPUR, BANKURA

Bankura: Comrade Sayid Ali Bhuinya, member of the Jaipur zonal committee of the CPI (M) was on his way back to his humble residence on 12 March, mounted on his trusty motorbike, from electioneering across far flung areas, as the early spring evening crept darkly in, he met with a sudden, but not unexpected, and armed assault at the hands of hired goons of the local unit of the Trinamul Congress who had laid in wait, in cowardly ambush.

A turn towards the area inhabited traditionally by goldsmiths proved fatal for the dear comrade—several shots from high-powered guns rang out from the waiting assassins, two of the large-calibre bullets sliced into comrade Sayid’s right ear and passed clean through, causing an instant if an exploding, harshly painful demise-- and another martyr to the cause for which the Party stands for was written into history of glory.

HEROIC ROLE
Comrade Sayid who was a Party member from 1979 had played a heroic role during the 1998-2000 when, as it had been reported in the Party press, a series of attempts, armed and dangerous, had been made by the newborn offshoot of Pradesh Congress called the Trinamul Congress to drive CPI (M) worker-sympathisers-supporters away and off from the whole belt of Jaipur-Kotulpur-Goghat-Ghatal-Jhargram stretching across buttressing parts of Bankura-Midnapore west-Hooghly.

Comrade Sayid along with other CPI (M) leadership was in the van of the task of organisation of the popular résistance. We saw villages being looted by the marauding Trinamuli goons, women molested, and men killed, CPI (M) workers hacked to death, – and the Ananda Bazar group chose to dub the fearsome medieval barbaric acts as a kind of liberation war and termed the killer raiders ‘warriors’ (yodhhas), going to the extent of posing men and women for photo-shoots with automatic rifles in hand and faces swabbed in towelling materials and calling them ‘the liberators.’

POPULAR RESISTANCE
Those were the days of attack and popular resistance. Comrade Sayid was active amidst the masses of Bankura around the Jaipur-Kotulpur area we remember. He had been a target of the reactionaries and the sectarians since those days. Biman Basu, state secretary of the Bengal CPI (M) and the Bankura leadership of the CPI (M) have strongly castigated the heinous act of the Trinamuli goons as the elections approach and the bubble of fond optimism, boosted by the bourgeois press, starts to undergo a series of bursting as far as electoral prospect is concerned. Thousands rallied the next day to protest the dear comrade’s murder and called upon the police for an early apprehension of the merciless killers.

BENGAL STRIKES DOWN POLITICS OF COUNTER-DEVELOPMENT

By B Prasant

A facetious if factual slogan has started to appear under the supervision of the Left student-youth all over Bengal. The slogan is popular, it attracts attention of passer-by’s, and it creates ripples among the ranks of the opposition as well, against whom it is directed.

What does the slogan say? It merely paraphrases and gives a slight warp to Mamata Banerjee’s policy outlook on Singur. “We, too, want industrialisation-- we, too, want the small car to be produced – not of course in Bengal but in Modi’s Gujarat.”

The politics of destruction, of delusion, of lies, of sabotage—face utter rejection amongst the youth, a wide cross-section of whom we spoke to and interacted with all over south Bengal for the past week. The ranks included students, unemployed and employed youth of various tiers and conditions, young women of various communities and the youth belonging to a bewildering variety of caste groups, and Communists, left liberals, even those who vaguely try to stay away from what they (mis)understand to be ‘politics.’

They were united in one point. The point is the bane of counter-progress advocated by and foisted on the people by Mamata’s men and women. Even more, they detest the strong and malodorous smell that the Trinamuli campaign gives out and which tells, in so many words—you can have industrial development, you can enjoy tranquillity, you can revel in amity, provided you vote us in and the Communists out. Otherwise, we will ensure that mayhem descends on you lot, and we shall let loose the dogs of war on you.

This mind game the youth reject completely. They are also furious at the naïveté political outlook of the Mamata brigade that boasts of the fact that unless the Communists come around to kow-towing to them as the Pradesh Congress has started to do they are going to ‘bash them into submission.’

Older readers will recall the famous slogan of the Hitlerjugend or the youth vandals of the Nazi party in the Germany of the terrible thirties of the last century that we understand CPGB leader Harry Polit was fond of quoting: Seien Sie mein Bruder, oder ich werde Ihren Kopf in verprügeln (‘Be my little brother or I will bash your head in.’)

Whether it is a small gathering during the dusk of a rural evening at Joymollah at Singur or at Gopinathpur in Haripal –both in Hooghly—or a large brightly lit rally at a crowded corner of the Alimuddin Street where Mohd Selim is to open an office of the CPI (M) local committee, the youth predominate the crowd that raise the slogan of triumph, give out the sweet whiff of popular electoral victory, and speak confidently of people’s success, come the elections. The feeling is already in the air before the campaign-counter-campaign has even started: ‘we shall overcome.’

About Cong. & Trinamool alliance

Left must strengthen alliance at grassroots: Buddhadeb

Kolkata, March 13: With Trinamool Congress and Congress allying for the Lok Sabhaelections in West Bengal, state Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Friday called for strengthening Left Front unity at grassroots.

"We have seen such alliances in the past. To counter it, there is need to strengthen Left Front unity at grassroots. It is not enough to be united at the upper levels," the Chief Minister told a Left Front legislature party meeting. Bhattacharjee asked the legislators to increase their outreach and sensitise the people about the development work done by the Left Front government, especially for the minorities besides, the progress under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.

Replying a question by Brahmamoy Nanda of the Socialist Party, he admitted that rural electrification was yet to cover all villages in the state. Efforts, were being made to ensure that it was done at the earliest.

Bhattacharjee said the power shortage would be over once two units at Sagardighi generating station became operational. Earlier, the assembly was adjourned for the day after 15 obituary references. A minute's silence was also observed.

BJP fields candidate against former ally Mamata Banerjee

Kolkata, Mar 13: The BJP today fielded a candidate against Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee, an erstwhile ally in the past Lok Sabha election in West Bengal. State BJP Mahila Morcha president Jyotsna Banerjee has been pitted against the TC chief in the prestigious Kolkata South constituency.

Former union minister Tapan Sikdar, who had rejoined the party last week in the presence of BJP & Prime Ministerial candidate L K Advani, was renominated from Dum Dum constituency, which he had won twice in 1998 and 1999, a party release said.

Sikdar had lost the 2004 Lok Sabha election from the seat. BJP had earlier announced that its state president and former union minister Satyabrata Mukherjee would contest from Krishnangar in Nadia district.

SUCI with Trinamool, but will oppose Congress

Kolkata, March 13 : The Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI) has joined hands with the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal but that will not deter it from fielding candidates against the latter’s new ally, the Congress, in the Lok Sabha elections.

“We’ve decided to support the Trinamool but will field candidates against the Congress in nine Lok Sabha seats,” SUCI state secretary Probhas Ghosh told reporters here Friday. He said that SUCI would pit Tarun Mondal against Nemai Barman of the state’s ruling Left Front in the Jaynagar seat as part of the Trinamool-SUCI alliance.

Earlier, SUCI had threatened Trinamool that it would withdraw from the alliance if the latter tied up with the Congress or the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the coming Lok Sabha elections. “Despite (the Trinamool’s tie-up with) the Congress, we’ve decided to go on with the alliance, keeping in mind the interests of common people in the state,” Ghosh added.

Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee has appealed to the SUCI leadership not to field candidates against the Congress in West Bengal. The SUCI is a Leftist party but is opposed to the ruling LF.

West Bengal government gears up for auto components park

Kolkata: After the Singur jolt, the West Bengal government is slowly making arrangements to house the state’s first auto components park in Guptamoni in West Midnapore district. A special purpose vehicle (SPV), floated by the developers of the project, has now started buying land directly from land owners in Guptamoni, some 127 km from here, a top official of West Bengal Industrial Infrastructure Development Corp (WBIIDC) told mediapersons Friday.

“The project started around a year back. The SPV is now purchasing land directly for the project from the land owners,” the official said.It is a joint venture project by WBIIDC and Bengal SREI Infrastructure Development. WBIIDC is an organisation of the West Bengal government for development of trade, commerce and industries in the state.

Bengal SREI is a joint venture between West Bengal Industrial Development Corp (WBIDC) and SREI Infrastructure Finance Ltd. WBIIDC and Bengal SREI would develop the infrastructure and then invite auto component manufacturers to set up manufacturing units over there. Asked when the project would be completed, the official said: “It is too premature to talk about it now. We are still purchasing land.” The park would be spread over 500 acres.

The state government suffered a huge setback when global auto major Tata Motors pulled its Nano car project out of the state due to violent protests by farmers, who alleged that their land had been taken by the state government forcibly. The protests were led by the state’s principal opposition party, the Trinamool Congress. At Rs.100,000 ($2,000) Nano has been advertised as the world’s cheapest car.

Tata Motors acquired 997.11 acres at Singur in Hooghly district to construct the Nano car factory in 2006, out of which 400 acres were earmarked for building auto ancillary units. “No auto component company has approached us yet. The project is still at a nascent stage and the economic condition worldwide is also not very conducive,” the official said.

Congress surrenders to Mamata on seat deal

KOLKATA: IT HAS happened the way it was scripted to happen. Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee succeeded in arm twisting the Congress on seat sharing to seal the electoral deal at the level of the Congress High Command with the party’s high priestess Sonia Gandhi presiding over matters and conceding to the Bengal firebrand’s demand.

The seat sharing deal had to do with the Congress accepting 14 Lok Sabha seats and getting cut out of South Bengal a Trinamool base and Mamata’s party fighting in the lion’s share of seats at 27. One seat has gone to left ally SUCI.

It was obvious from the very beginning when the two parties were sparring over an electoral deal to stop division of anti-Left votes that the Congress would have to play second fiddle to the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal and would have to accept the role of a junior ally. The fact remains that ever since Mamata left the Congress in 1997 and formed her own party, the Trinamool Congress has gone from strength to strength vis a vis the Congress and reduced the latter to sign board. It is only in recent years that the Congress has seen some revival in North Bengal districts. By accepting that the Congress will fight in 14 seats as against the Triamool’s 27, Sonia and the high command has tacitly admitted that the Left in Bengal can be taken on only with Mamata spearheading the fight.

The seat sharing arrangement was formally announced by Congress Working Committee member in-charge of West Bengal, K Keshav Rao.

That the seat sharing arrangement has not gone down well with a large section of the Congress was apparent. But no leader in Bengal has dared to voice dissent so far. The Congress had wanted a few seats in South Bengal which they did not get apart from the lower number of seats they are being allowed to contest. At one stage it asked for one seat in South Bengal but was denied it by Mamata. Besides the six seats that the Congress holds it will contest from Arambag, Jhargram, Bankura, Purulia, Burdwan-Durgapur, Bolpur and Jalpaiguri.

A section of Congress leaders were of the opinion that the party high command had been taken for a ride by Mamata when she was not in a position to do so. The Congress they felt was in a much better position in striking a better deal in terms of seats simply because Mamata cannot go back to the NDA fold for fear of losing minority votes which she cashed in on during the Panchayat polls. She had the choice of tying up with the Congress or going it alone. This is where the Congress should have pressed home its advantage. Instead it was Mamata being the only MP from Bengal from her party, who managed to turn the tables on Sonia. The leaders did admit that the slow pace of political equations working out in the rest of the country may have prompted Sonia to seal the deal with Mamata despite the advantages the Trinamool chief managed to reap. Some, state Congress leaders, among them Deepa Dasmunhsi wife of Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi felt that the Congress had surrendered to Mamata.
An elated Mamata addressing a press conference went on record stating that the seat-sharing arrangement was a fulfillment of the people’s aspirations. People, she is convinced, wanted the alliance where a united opposition could take on the CPI(M) led Left and oust it from Bengal.

Mamata announces list of candidates for LS elections

KOLKATA: AFTER THE central committee of Congress in New Delhi finally gave its nod to an alliance with the Trinamool Congress (TMC) in West Bengal on Thursday (March 12), the TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee announced that TMC would fight for 27 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal. While Congress would place candidates for the remaining 14 seats and the Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI) for one seat only.

Banerjee also announced the names of the 27 TMC candidates. Terming the alliance between Congress and TMC in West Bengal as “a symbol of friendship”, K Kesava Rao, the All India Congress Committee (AICC) official announced in New Delhi that the alliance would sustain up to 2011 Legislative Assembly election in West Bengal to fight against the Left Front, which has been ruling Bengal for the last 32 years.

The names of the TMC candidates are as follows:

Constituency name Name of the candidates

Contai............... Sisir Adhikari

Bishnupur......... Seuli Saha

Howrah............... Ambika Banerjee

Basirhat.............. Hazi Nurul Islam

Kolkata North...... Sudip Bandopadhyayay

Kolkata South....... Mamata Banerjee

Jadavpur............... Kabir Suman

Diamond Harbour............... Somen Mitra (PIC)

Asansol............................. Moloy Ghatak

Birbhum............................. Satabdi Roy

Ranaghat............................... Sucharu Halder

Krishnanagar........................ Tapas Pal

Hoogly...................................... Ratna Nag

Ghatal....................................... Nure Alam Chowdhury

Tamluk...................................... Suvendu Adhikari

Uluberia..................................... Sultan Ahmed

Balurghat.................................. Biplab Mitra

Midnapore............................... Deepak Ghosh

DumDum.................................. Sougata Roy

Barrackpore............................... Dinesh Trivedi

Cooch behar................................ Argha Roy Pradhan

Burdwan East............................ Ashok Biswas

Serampore................................. Kalyan Bandopadhyayay

Mathurapur............................ C M Jatuya

Alipurduar........................... Pawan Lakra

Bongaon.................................... Gobinda Chandra Naskar

Barasat................................... Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar

Though Somen Mitra is the founder member of the Pragatisil Indira Congress (PIC) and would fight for the Diamond Harbour seat, he wants the symbol of TMC in the ballot.

CPI(M) demands action against SUC for provocative campaign

Kolkata, March 6 : The Communist Party of India(Marxist) Friday lodged a complaint with West Bengal’s chief electoral officer seeking action against the SUC for unleashing a provocative political campaign in the state.In a letter to the Election Commission, state CPI(M) secretary Biman Basu said the SUC has unleashed an “anti-democratic and provocative campaign in the state”.

“In connection with their political programme on March 9, they are using very objectionable words in graffiti like ‘either accept the demand or shoot’. I don’t understand how a political party which participates in a democratic process can use such undemocratic words,” Basu said in the letter.

He demanded action against the party as it was a law and order issue. The CPI(M) also sent two pictures of the wall writing to the Election Commission.

WBLA terminates memberships of two sitting Congress MLAs

KOLKATA: In an unprecedented move, the Speaker of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly (WBLA) Hasim Abdul Halim, on Friday, terminated the memberships of two sitting Congress MLAs, Somen Mitra and Sudip Banerjee, under the anti-defection laws. Responding to a plea made before him by the Congress Legislative Party (CLP) chief Manas Bhunia, Mr Halim, on Friday, took the historic decision of expelling the sitting Congress MLAs.

This is for the first time since 1977 when the Left Front government came to power in the state that two sitting members of the WBLA have lost their membership. After dismissing the two MLAs, Mr Halim said that "both of them were given enough time to explain why steps would not be taken against them under the anti-defection rules. But, they have not responded and I feel this is a fit case to disqualify them." Mr Bhunia, who brought anti-defection charges against the MLAs, said, "The Speaker has taken the right decision by terminating the memberships of the two MLAs. I think both have been unethical. While one has joined another political party after winning the elections on a Congress symbol, the other has floated his own party, without relinquishing his membership, after winning the election on a Congress ticket."

Mr Mitra had been one of the seniormost Congress legislators in West Bengal and represented the Sealdah assembly seat without any interruption since 1982. He won the assembly seat for the last time in 2006 on a Congress ticket, but recently left the party to float his own organisation, Progressive Indira Congress (PIC), which will be an ally of Mamata Banerjee during the coming Lok Sabha elections. Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee announced on Friday evening that both Mr Mitra and Mr Banerjee will contest the Lok Sabha elections on her party symbol. It is learnt that Mitra is likely to contest the Diamond Harbour Lok Sabha seat, while Banerjee may fight the Kolkata North Lok Sabha constituency.

Interestingly, both the Sealdah and Bowbazar assembly seats (the latter being Banerjee’s domain) does not exist now following the delimitation of all the 42 Lok Sabha and 294 assembly seats in West Bengal. Like Mr Mitra, Mr Banerjee was also elected to the state Assembly on a Congress ticket during the 2006 assembly elections from Bowbazar. Recently, he rejoined Trinamool Congress and faced the ire of the CLP. Mr Banerjee also represented the Bowbazar seat in 1987, 1991 and 1996. During 2001 assembly elections, Bowbazar was left to Nayana Banerjee, Sudip’s wife, who too won the seat on a Trinamool Congress ticket.

However, like Sealdah, Bowbazar assembly seat also does not exist after the delimitation. Following the Speaker’s verdict, the Congress has lost two seats in the state legislature reducing their tally to 19. Trinamool Congress, however, increased their tally in the state legislature as the newly elected party MLA from Bishnupur West Assembly seat, Madan Mitra took oath on Friday. Now, Trinamool Congress has 32 MLAs with the party also winning the Nandigram and Bishnupur West assembly by-elections in the past four months.

It is expected that by-elections to fill up the vacant Congress seats will be held before the 2011 assembly elections. The chief electoral officer (CEO), West Bengal, Debasish Sen, when contacted, said, "We have not yet received any official communication about termination of the two MLAs. We will take necessary steps after getting word of it from the state assembly." It is learnt that by-elections to these two assembly segments, which have been remodelled after the delimitation, can take place along with the coming Lok Sabha elections.

Dunlop To Recommence Work At Sahagunj Plant On Mar. 6

KOLKATA: Dunlop India on Tuesday said it would withdraw suspension of work at its Sahagunj facility and the plant would commence operation on March 6, reports media.The company declared suspension of work on November 30, 2008, after trade unions rejected the company's proposal for a temporary wage cut and suspension of production to tide over working capital crisis. The company had also approached the West Bengal Government for working capital refinance and a set of fiscal concessions. The company said in a statement that a few bankers have now agreed to meet the working capital requirement for running the plant. Besides, the State Government also said it would it would consider relief and incentives sought by the company.

The company is yet to reach a consensus with the labor unions on pending issues and reopening of the facility and it hopes to sort out all pending issues with the unions after the commencement of repairing and refurbishing of the plant, the release said.The company had initially asked 229 workers (out of a total of around 1,200) of maintenance and engineering division to report to duty. The rest of the workers will be inducted in different departments in a phased manner, once the plant is ready for production.

BIMAN BASU RELEASES BOOK ON DELIMITATION OF BENGAL ASSEMBLY AND LOK SABHA CONSTITUENCIES

KOLKATA: Bengal CPI (M) secretary Biman Basu released at the Muzaffar Ahmad Bhavan, late in the afternoon of 1 march a book on delimitation. The books deals with a brief history of delimitation in Bengal and delineates the changes that the recent amendments had wrought in the shape, size, and population pools of the different Assembly and Lok Sabha segments and units.

State committee member of the CPI (M) and an associate of the Delimitation Commission, Rabin Deb wrote and compiled the book. Biman Basu wrote the all-important political introduction to the 75-page, soft cover document published by the National Book Agency (NBA), and priced at Rs 20.

Introducing Rabin’s book while releasing it to the media, Biman Basu said that the effort merited equal importance with the Prannoy Roy-edited India Decides and Dilip Banerjee’s Election Recorder. Certainly, Rabin’s book is the first of its comprehensive kind for Bengal, and the data used has been brought up-to-date to mid-February of 2009. ‘I have not seen such a detailed work of this kind in the past,’ confessed Biman while praising the smart style of writing, analysis, and compilation of the material that had been marshalled with help from both NBA and the daily Ganashakti.

Te book dwells at some detail on how the 294 Assembly segments and the 42 Lok Sabha seats have been reconstituted by the Delimitation Commission chaired by Justice Kuldip Singh. Bima Basu pointed to the principal contents of the book, which looked like this:

Delimitation—an exercise after 33 years
Population based effects
Reserved seats and changes
The shape and size of the Bengal Assembly 1952-2006
Demographic and other features of each Assembly and Lok Sabha seat
Results of the 13th and 14th Lok Sabha polls
Gazette notifications of the Delimitation Commission and of the Election Commission
A multi-coloured map delineating the delimitation results

Biman Basu pointed to the acts of commission indulged in by the Bengal opposition, especially by the Trinamul Congress during the public hearings that the Commission organised at Siliguri, Durgapur, and in Kolkata. The then CEO as well as the chairman of the Delimitation Commission were physically heckled. Work of the Commission was hampered. Unprintable words were thrown at the members of the Commission who were dubbed as ‘stooges of Alimuddin Street,’ and yet the work could be completed thanks to the LF members of the Commission present, which backed the Commission’s work to the hilt.

Later, answering questions on the fact of the lessening of the population profile of Kolkata, that saw Kolkata lose one Lok Sabha seat of three, Biman Basu offered four tentative reasons:

Tenants often went to the suburbs in the houses/flats that they had built and/or purchased
Jobs took people and their families away from the metropolis
Dilapidated houses were sold off and families moved to the suburbia

Those working abroad, and originally khas Kolkatans, now preferred to return to pricey and luxurious flats/condominiums they have come to own in the high-rises that increasingly dot the outer reaches of the city.

CPI (M) WORKER ATTEMPTED TO BE BURNT ALIVE AT NANDIGRAM

NANDIGRAM: In a vicariously cruel incident, Trinamuli goons sought to set fire to Uttam Bera, local committee secretary of the Bhekutia unit of the CPI (M) at Nandigram alive, deep into the night of 1 March. In fortuitous circumstances, Uttam managed to escape what was a sure and terrible death awaiting him.

Uttam himself told us that he was alone in his one-and-a-half stories mathkotha mud hut on that fateful night, his wife having gone to her mother’s place with their only girl child. The roof of the mathkotha is an inevitable and traditional construct of thatched roofing material of dried straw and wooden chips to hold them together.

The arsonists would surreptitiously climb atop the roof as Uttam slept the deep slumber of a daily wage earner, and then quickly spread highly flammable spirits and kerosene plus petrol on the roof and on the wooden window sills. The whole ensemble burst into a ball of flame with a vicious hissing noise.

Uttam woke up with a start at the sudden change in temperature (nights are chilly yet in east Midnapore), and had the presence of mind, and the deep courage, to leap down to the ground floor by jumping though the fatal ring of fire that was his nearest window. He identified in the bright light, as his much-beloved self-fabricated house burnt to cinders, the Trinamuli goons who had come in their dozens and who could flee in the dark of the mid-night.

Uttam has been target for long, says CPI (M) leader of the district secretariat Ashok Guria for Uttam is a popular Party organiser. We recall with regret the series of murders the Trinamulis have committed in 2008 of CPI (M) workers at Nandigram since they won the rural polls in the district.

21 May 2008 Khalek Mullick

6 August 2008 Niranjan Mondol

7 August 2008 Dulal Garudas

Besides, Joydeb Paik of Sonachura was shot thrice on 5 August 2008 but he somehow managed to survive, although the wounds had left him half-a-man that he was as far as strength and stamina are concerned. Biman Basu, state secretary of the CPI (M) has castigated the attempted murder of Uttam Bera in strong language.

Elsewhere we learn that more than 300 CPI (M) workers and sympathisers have been driven from home and hearth of late by the right-left combination at Nandigram in the area of the Sonachura and Kalicharanpur Gram Panchayats in a shocking replay of the fateful weeks and months of 2007.

BISHNUPUR WEST SEAT RESULT

KOLKATA: On the defeat of the CPI (M) candidate in the Bishnupur west Assembly seat, Biman Basu said that the greater factor was not the alliance between the two Congresses, Pradesh, and Trinamul, for the former could garner less than ten thousand votes the last time around. The defeat has to be judged in the success or lack of it on the part of the organisation to carry the campaign of the CPI (M) deep enough among the masses of the people.

In addition, Biman was confident that the results of an Assembly by-elections were dominated by factors and conditions that would never apply when it came either to the general elections to the Assembly or to the Lok Sabha. For the record, the CPI (M) had won the seat the last time around after garnering 44% of the votes polled. This time, the figure was but one per cent less – and that made the difference.

Maoists-Jharkhandis Burn Alive Three-Year Old

DHANIAKHALI(HOOGHLY): Three-year-old Sumana Mandi, daughter of CPI(M) panchayat member Loncho Mandi was burnt to a horrible end with a mixture of petrol and kerosene lit with a fatal matchstick. The child died screaming in extreme pain.

The incident took place on February 22, 2009 at a small hamlet in Dhaniakhali in Hooghly. Sumana’s mother Jharna could be of little help as she too had been set upon, bound up, and then lit up with burning fuel in another corner in the hutment. She is at present fighting for her life at a local hospital.

It was to be an otherwise peaceful country evening with the reverberating sound of conchshells welcoming the evening. Loncho, a khet mazdoor, escaped as he was away attending to some urgent panchayat business. The attackers came in an armed group of fifteen.

Biman Basu, senior CPI(M) leader said that the heinous act proved how desperate the right-left opposition had become as the Lok Sabha elections approached. CPI(M) leaders Mitali Kumar and Bharati Mukherjee rushed to the spot and condoled the death in the bereaved family and also looked after the treatment of the burn injuries of Jharna. Statewide protest rallies have been held to castigate the inhuman act. It is learnt that the Disam group of the Jharkhandis were involved in the attack along with Maoists and Trinamulis.

Elsewhere at Raina in Burdwan, Comrade Nurul Islam, a CPI(M) worker, succumbed to his fatal injuries after battling for life for seven days. Comrade Nurul had been brutally attacked by goons in the hire of the Trinamul Congress. Comrade Nurul led the resistance but was felled by many bullets.

CPI(M) Calls For Struggle Against Separatist And Divisive Forces

KOLKATA: IN its latest meeting of the state committee, held on February 24, 2009 the Bengal unit of the CPI(M) has called upon the mass of the people to stand guard against forces of reaction and their political patrons. A ceaseless campaign-movement must be waged against these anti-people and anti-poor elements. Presided over by central committee member Benoy Konar, state secretary Biman Basu made an important address, on the political-organisational reality and tasks.

Biman Basu said that a move had been started for some time now to cobble together an unprincipled mahajot’ or grand alliance comprising a rainbow opposition from the reactionary right to the sectarian left. To counter their moves, the CPI(M) must deepen mass contact and build up an intense political campaign at all levels, keeping in mind the interest of the masses. The unity of the Left Front must be augmented even further in all districts.

The meeting saw state committee members report on different political organisational issues. They said that the acceptability of the Party had continued to increase and the rallies at the call of the Party at the district level were bigger than ever. The resistance of the people is on the rise against the continuum of efforts by the separatists to try to create mayhem and chaos.

The issue of Lok Sabha candidates was discussed and it was decided to allocate the responsibility in this regard to the state secretariat. A meeting of the Bengal Left Front would be convened after all the partners had finalised their list of LS candidates. The comprehensive list of Left Front candidates shall be declared from that meeting of the state Left Front.

LF SURE TO DEFEAT EVEN COMBINED OPPOSITION: BUDDHADEB

BENGAL chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, addressing two meetings at Howrah and in Burdwan asserted that the Bengal Left Front would emerge victorious in the coming elections even if the opposition combined. He also asserted that industrialisation was the most suited way for creating jobs for the unemployed in Bengal.

The task before the Left would be to go deep amongst the masses and disseminate the Left’s political point of view in the backdrop of the evolving reality. The Left unity must be further strengthened. The crude face of capitalism-in-crisis must be unmasked relentlessly. He pointed out how the proponents of the ‘all-powerful market’ across the world were now reading Marx and extolling the virtues of the demand side economics of John Maynard Keynes. Socialism remains all powerful but it would be too early now to write off capitalism as a force to be reckoned with.Speaking in some detail about the danger emanating from the Trinamulis centrally aiding and abetting all kinds of forces of separatism, division, and religious fundamentalism, Buddhadeb emphasised that the issue central to the industrial policy of Bengal was the creation of jobs. Land is a prime requisite for the process to fructify. The LF government shall move forward with more discretion in the days to come and with a more organised approach in the task of land acquisition. At the same time, the ongoing process of democratisation and popular participation n governance shall move ahead.

EC FOR AN ADDITIONAL
11,000 POLLING BOOTHS

In one of its recent decrees, the Election Commission (EC) has called for reduction of voters per booth in Bengal. According to the EC, one booth will not include in its list more than 1200 voters. This translates to setting up of more booths than earlier. The state election department calculates that this will mean an additional of 11,000 booths, come the LS polls. At present the number of polling booths in Bengal number 51,919. After the EC ruling is put in place, sources in the state EC tell us, the number is likely to cross 64,000. The first experiment with the new figures of around 1200 per booth will be done at the Bishnupur west by-elections come February 26, 2009.

We learn from the EC that the argument behind the call for increase in the number of booths is quite straightforward. In Bengal where the political consciousness of voters is widespread, elections are held as almost a sacred event with voters coming out in their millions to vote in instances of assembly or Lok Sabha polls. Even in by-elections, the voting percentage is seldom below 70-75 per cent. Thus, long queues are formed even after darkness had fallen.

The average number of voters per booth now is between 1500 and 1600. The last assembly elections saw Bengal EC suo motu reduce the number of voters per booth to 1400. This time the number, as we said, would work out to 1200-odd. An additional and complex burden that the Bengal election machinery shall have to bear would be the additional components of election workers and security personnel who have to be brought in this time around, or, shall we say, from this time around.

12% INCREASE OF VOTERS AT NANDIGRAM VERSUS 2% AT KHEJURI

The Lok Sabha elections approach fast. One seat that the Trinamul Congress aims to wrest from the CPI(M) is Tamluk. Nandigram assembly segment is a part of this constituency that shall play a crucial role in the final outcome as would Khejuri. Data of the state election commission reveals something very disturbing – in an unprecedented electoral event for Bengal, there has been an increase of 12 per cent of voters in Nandigram assembly segment over the past two years of disturbance at the behest of the right-left combo. The concomitant rise in voters’ strength is a norm hovering around less than 2 per cent.

Subhendu Adhikari of the Trinamul Congress and their candidate designate from Tamluk has already started to boast that he would win the seat by an unprecedentedly huge margin. Let us take a look at a few statistical scenarios. Since the panchayat polls, the voters’ list has puffed up to stand at 12 per cent more than it had been during the past two years. How did this happen?

From January of 2007, the right-left combination let loose a veritable reign of terror in the entire Nandigram blocks, perhaps except Nandigram III. During the whole of 2007 and part of 2008, the voters’ list was revised in the appropriate manner by the Maoists and the Trinamulis with help from SUCI. They played political ducks-and-drakes with the entire process. At the end of the exercise we are now confronted with a hugely inflated voters’ list – 12 per cent worth of increase in less than two years. The whole development has thrown an additionality of challenge to the CPI(M) and its mass base, come the Lok Sabha elections.

LF GOVT GOES IN FOR RS 5106 Cr WORTH OF INCOME GENERATION, ADDITIONAL EMPLOYMENT

The Bengal Left Front government has declared a plan for additional generation of income and employment especially amongst the poor. This is a step to fight the recession that has spread its hydra-headed tentacles around the Indian economy.

Finance minister Professor Asim Dasgupta would prefer to describe the plan as a move towards farther empowerment of the mass of the people in distressing times. The plan aims at carrying beneficent economic and financial measures to the poorest of the poor as part of the LF government’s policy outlook.

The measures set in motion can thus be summarised:

1.Rs 1000 crore earmarked for non-BPL rural poor for housing
2.BPL families to get ration at Rs 2 for a kg of rice
3.Self-help groups to receive loans at a rate of 4 per cent from banks
4.Rs 50,000 to be disbursed as compensation to farmers whose potato crops have been affected with disease
5.All districts to have decentralised set up of godowns with a capacity of two lakh MT
6.Rs 500 crore allotted for land banks for medium and heavy industries
7.Rs 55 crore allotted for the handloom sector
8.One thousand vocational centres to be set up
9.Two new universities to be set up at Purulia-Bankura, and Jalpaiguri
10.50,000 primary school teacher posts to be filled up
11.Increase in the pay of para-teachers, school and college part-time teachers, and secondary education centres
12.The pension of workers of closed factories and closed tea gardens to be increased to Rs 1000 from the existing Rs 750
13.Increase of pension of the old, the widows, the physically challenged, as well as of kisans and workers

SPREAD OF EDUCATION IS FACILITATED BY THE USE OF THE MOTHER TONGUE

In order to ensure a fast spread of education, especially scientific education amongst the people, the use of the mother tongue is essential. This was stated by CPI(M) leader Biman Basu while addressing a seminar on ‘study of science in Bengali’, on the occasion of the international mother language day in Kolkata on February 21, 2009. The Bangiya Sakhsharata Prasar Samity (BSPS) organised the seminar at Kolkata University.

Biman Basu said that language had always played a central role behind the process that led to the formation and growth of States. Bangladesh is a potent example of this tenet. Imperialism was at work in ensuring that languages became fewer and fewer and diversity was done away with. This must be resisted.

Bengali language, too, was under attack from the forces of imperialism and their lackeys. The role emoted by such stalwarts in the development of the Bengali language like Vidyasagar, Madhusudan Dutta, Akhshaykumar Datta, Ram Mohan Roy, the Tagore family, J C Bose, and P C Roy were mentioned. Their tradition must be carried forward.

The occasion also saw the celebration of the 18th year of the organ of the BSPS, Lekha O Pada.