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Amidst bitterly battled panchayat elections in West Bengal, the ruling Trinamool Congress has opened fire on another front. On Monday night, she wrote a three-page letter to the state election commission (SEC), complaining about visits by Governor C.K.
Boss, who calls himself the “ruler of Earth Zero”, has begun making these impromptu visits in the past few days and getting to know family members of victims of polling-related violence, further fueling opposition parties’ claims of lawlessness and insufficient troop deployments for opinion polls. .
Bose had so far been to Dinhata in Coochbehar, as well as Bhangar (the site of some of the worst clashes), Basanti and Murshidabad.
In its letter to the SEC, TMC accused Bose of interviewing BJP workers “using state facilities such as guest houses/circuit house and transport facilities”. The TMC called this a violation of the exemplary code of conduct, saying, “The actions of the Honorable Ruler, for all practical purposes, amount to electoral propaganda and/or campaigning.”
According to the TMC, there was an apparent attempt to “portray the existence of a parallel government where (Bose) and BJP members side by side try to hold fair elections”. She also questioned his remarks such as describing the situation as “extremely troublesome” and that “the death knell for democracy should not sound in the hands of those in charge of it”, saying this overshadows the sanctity of the SEC.
The TMC said the governor was also “interfering with the election process”, through his “independent investigations” and “establishing an alleged control room at Raj Bhavan to allegedly oversee the election process”.
Bose, whose relations as governor with Mamata Banerjee’s government began on a warm note but has since deteriorated, has been at odds with the TMC since the start of the electoral process.
After the opposition went to court over the polling schedule announced by State Elections Commissioner Rajiva Sinha, and sought the central forces, Bose – in an unusual move – refused to accept Sinha’s accession letter, days after he was sworn in.
The matter seemed to have died naturally after Mamata responded stating that the state’s election commissioner could only be removed through an elaborate impeachment process.
After election campaigns started and incidents of violence increased, the governor started his spot visits later saying, “My field visits have convinced me that there is violence in some pockets of West Bengal. There is a manifestation of the so-called killing policy, intimidation policy, and muscle-flexing policies.”
Bose opened a control room at Raj Bhavan, which he called the “Peace Room”, where he invited people to send complaints about violence. He also said that his visits should not be interpreted as a “fault-finding mission” but rather as a “fact-finding mission”.
Raj Bhavan shared some videos of his interactions with victims of violence. In one, he is on a train and is seen on the phone consoling the family of Manwara, a TMC candidate from the Catalberia Panchayat, whose father, Ziyarul Mula, was murdered in the town of Canning. Bose can be heard acknowledging the mullah’s contributions as a specialist TMC operative, which could exacerbate the TMC’s unease.
Opposition leaders criticized the TMC’s strong words against Bose. Congress State Chairman Adhir Chowdhury said, “A ruler can go anywhere in a democratic country. The Transitional Military Council is criticizing him as he now fears defeat. We welcome the next ruler to Murshidabad (Chaudhry’s stronghold).”
BJP chief Sukanta Majumdar said, “The governor is the constitutional head of this state. Therefore, he can do anything to maintain democracy in the state.”
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