Prime Minister Narendra Modi virtually addresses Kshetriya Panchayati Raj Parishad, in New Delhi, on August 12, 2023.
| Photo Credit: PTI
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday raised the issue of violence during the West Bengal panchayat elections and accused the Trinamool Congress (TMC) of “playing with blood during the rural polls“.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said in response that the Prime Minister had “not only deprived the State but is also trying to defame it”.
“Is chunao mein TMC ne kaisa khooni khel khela hai, yeh bhi desh ne dekha hai (during this election, the manner in which Trinamool Congress played with blood, the country has been witness to it),” Mr. Modi said while virtually addressing the Kshetriya Panchayati Raj Parishad in West Bengal.
The Prime Minister spoke at length on how the recently concluded panchayat elections in the State had been marred by violence. He said that, from the start, adequate time had not been given to file nomination papers, and even if nomination had been filed to contest the polls, obstacles were created in preventing the candidate from contesting.
“Not only BJP supporters but voters were also terrorised. The lives of relatives and supporters of BJP workers were made hell,” Mr. Modi said. He alleged that, at every stage, from polling to counting, there had been violence in the panchayat polls.
“On the day of polling, goons are given contracts to capture polling booths and run away with ballot boxes. On the day of counting, an atmosphere of fear is created and BJP workers are driven out of counting centres,” Mr. Modi said.
The PM said that despite the excesses during the rural polls, the people of West Bengal had supported BJP candidates. He raised BJP workers for their “struggle”.
Responding to the PM, the Chief Minister raised a host of issues, including violence in Manipur, demonetisation, and the PM Cares Fund. “I don’t know what has happened to you that you are only concerned about West Bengal and are trying to deprive the State,” Ms. Banerjee said, raising the issue of denial of Central funds.
She also accused the West Bengal Governor of running a parallel government and said that the office of Governors should be done away with and the Raj Bhavans turned into museums.
Ms. Banerjee asked how over 2 lakh nominations could be filed for contesting panchayat polls if there had been violence, and how over 20 of her party workers had been killed if the violence had been one-sided.
Later in the day, the Chief Minister took to X (formerly known as Twitter) and raised questions over why the Chief Justice of India (CJI) was being removed from the selection panel for Election Commissioners, posting: “The CJI’s role in the three-member committee for selecting the CEC [Chief Election Commissioner] is crucial. We strongly oppose replacing the CJI with a cabinet minister in the EC selection. The discomfort suggests their vote manipulation could suffer.”
The violence during the West Bengal panchayat elections, which began with on June 8 when the filing nominations commenced, continued till polling on July 8 and counting of votes on July 11. More than 50 people were killed, including supporters of all major political parties over the course of the polls. According to the Trinamool Congress, about 19 supporters of the party were killed. The BJP leadership had claimed that 11 party activists had died in the violence.
On Saturday, when the Prime Minister and the Chief Minister traded charges, there was tension during the formation of boards at panchayats in different parts of the State. There was violence during board formation at Harishchandrapur in Malda district.