Mamata Banerjee led Trinamool Congress in West Bengal received a stern rebuke from the Honourable Supreme Court on Tuesday. The rebuke to Mamata Banerjee and TMC was in relation to the allegations of malpractices in the recently held Panchayat elections in the state. The Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra which also comprised of Justice A M Khanwilkar and Justice D Y Chandrachud censured the representatives of the WB government over the matter of the ruling party TMC’s ‘uncontested’ win in over 30% of the seats in the Panchayat elections. The apex court bench expressed shock at the large number of wins by the TMC which had come amidst the allegations of violence. CJI Dipak Misra went on to say, “So many uncontested seats show that chapter IX (providing for Panchayati Raj institutions) is not working out. We won’t go by the declaration.” The three judge bench demanded further explanation from the state on the high numbers of the uncontested seats. It further went on to ask the state government to, “file an affidavit (defending the high uncontested wins) by tomorrow (Wednesday).”
This is a welcome move from the Supreme Court considering there had been countless charges of murder, intimidation and violence levied on the TMC in West Bengal, both prior to and after the Panchayat elections. Accusations of violence and other illegal behavior on the TMC had been levied by BJP, Congress and the Communist Party. The worst hit by the devilish acts of the goons of TMC had been the BJP. Countless leaders and nominees for seats were violently stopped from filing their nomination. TMC thugs continued their rampage during the campaigning process as well and attacked many opposition workers. Even after the results were announced, the TMC leaders were shocked by BJP’s emergence as the second biggest party in the state and continued their string of harassment and vandalizing. The near tyrannical way in which Mamata Banerjee wants to wipe out all opposition from the state is a ghastly affair. The approach of SC towards this issue is thus commendable as it is striving to bring transparency to the shady practices of the TMC.
The next best step in this regard would be to investigate the serious allegations of booth capturing and rigging which Mamata Banerjee’s party had, allegedly, freely indulged in. The West Bengal state election commission was asked to file an affidavit to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court bench said, “You (state election commission) are the guardian of law. It was vivid that so many seats were going uncontested,” and went on to add, “if nobody is contesting, then there will be no litigation. The fact that there were litigations and it means that everyone was aware of the fact that something was missing”. This reproach by the SC shows that there is serious threat to democracy in West Bengal under Mamata Banerjee led TMC rule. In the days to come, it will become clear how the TMC managed to win 20,076 of the 58,692 seats uncontested. These include 16,814 Gram Panchayat seats, 3,059 Panchayat Samiti seats and 203 Zilla Parishad which the TMC won uncontested. Shocking attack on democracy by Mamata Banerjee supported TMC goons, especially considering that she hopes to lead the Third Front in the upcoming 2019 Lok Sabha elections.