The election commission today announced the election dates for five states, including eight-phase elections in West Bengal.
Soon after, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee began questioning the election commission for holding elections in her state in eight phases.
She accused the center of colluding with the country’s premier election body to give BJP a chance to misuse money to win the election. What does this suggest? Is she is confident of winning the election? Isn’t she sounding like England captain Joe Root and Co, complaining about Indian pitches, after losing two Test matches? But here, Mamata is complaining even before the battle has begun. Does this not speak about her uncertainty? Has she conceded defeat even before the election results are out?
We all know how elections are won in West Bengal. There is a long history. It is well-documented too. We also have seen the ugly scenes created by Mamata’s goons during the last Lok Sabha elections in West Bengal.
What did these goons do?
They incited violence; they tried to prevent people from voting and threatened them with death if they voted for BJP; they hurled bombs at the polling booths; they attacked prominent BJP leaders and rigged votes to win elections.
This time, they will not get an opportunity to cause mayhem because the eight-phase elections will give ample time to the election commission to deploy central forces at hyper-sensitive booths to conduct incident-free elections.
And, this is what Mamata’s party does not want – free and fair elections. In fact, this has been the history of the West Bengal elections. It was the Left that indulged in these poll-related crimes before Mamata assumed power. And now, she is adopting the same tactics to remain in power, which we all witnessed during the last Lok Sabha elections.
Therefore, the responsibility of holding a free and fair election in West Bengal is enormous. It is not less than climbing Mount Everest. The election commission should be lauded for taking this step to hold free and fair elections by deploying central forces, which the country wants.