What made this penultimate phase special was that it was the Election Commission’s first encounter with the Maoist belt and the Trinamool Congress’ encounter with a Left stronghold.
As polling ended on Saturday evening in Burdwan and in three Maoist-affected districts in southern Bengal - Purulia, Bankura, and West Midnapore - covering 38 assembly constituencies and some 7.8 million voters, the heavy turnout of 82.2%, in keeping with the trend of high turnouts so far, isn’t the story of the day!
What made this penultimate phase special was that it was the Election Commission’s (EC) first encounter with the Maoist belt and the Trinamool Congress’ encounter with a Left stronghold. And that the elections were held peacefully. The people cheered the EC and central forces for ensuring that “polling is free” after many years.
This is also the region that has tended to vote against Mamata Banerjee’s party, even when the rest of the state has appeared to favour her. Thus, in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, she didn’t win a single of the 13 LS seats in the regions; while in the previous 2006 assembly polls, it was the Left that swept 38 seats, with the Trinamool and Congress winning just 3 (in 2006, the area had 41 seats).
Will Mamata’s slogan calling for a change in 2011 make a difference will be known on May 13, when the results are announced. But what must give Mamata hope is the fact that elections were held peacefully, thus allowing voters to cast their votes without fear of retribution.
Moreover, there is also the fact that in this belt where the Maoists’ diktats do count, Maoist leader Kishanji had declared before the polls that the voters should shun the Left. This might just prove the clincher for the Trinamool and its ally Congress.
Of course, keeping the elections peaceful was ensured with the might of the State. Two helicopters carried out aerial surveillance in the forest areas and remote corners of the region while around 550-600 companies of central paramilitary forces were deployed on ground.
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