The panchayat election process in Bengal has seen the deaths of 42 people. On poll day alone, 21 people died.
Regardless of their political affiliation, the victims share a common background – they predominantly come from economically disadvantaged families. Those who have perpetrated the violence are also similarly poor.
In a state where access to political power plays a crucial role in the lives and livelihoods of the poor, the competition to secure it has grown particularly intense and violent.
Local elections in the state have thus been plagued by a long-standing history of violence prompted by politics.
To understand the roots of political violence in the panchayat polls, it is necessary to go back to the inception of the panchayat system in Bengal. The state became the first in the country to introduce a democratically elected three-tier panchayat system under the supervision of the State Election Commission. Prior to this, administration was mainly controlled by district magistrates and block development officers, with powerful wealthy families holding significant influence in respective regions.
The panchayat system was a tool for the ruling Left Front to implement its land reforms policies, including land redistribution and securing tenancy rights for share-croppers. However, as land reforms began to be implemented, ‘capturing territory’ and power in villages through the panchayat system became a part of it.
The Left Front government implemented direct elections for the three-tier panchayats under party symbols, thereby decentralising power and diminishing the influence of wealthy and influential families. This led to a transformation in the social fabric of rural Bengal.
People queue to vote in Junglemahal, Bengal. Photo: By arrangement.
A study by Buddhadeb Ghosh and Girish Kumar conducted in 1996 on the 1993 panchayat election found that while the panchayats were free from traditional elite domination, and power did become de-centralised to an extent, decision making was largely controlled by the party high command.
In redistributing land and ensuring the rights of sharecroppers, the Left government fought opposition from local wealthy families, gaining territorial control over vast rural areas.
With the panchayat elections too, the same locally influential families faced opposition from poorer candidates and these polls became a tool of class struggle.
Bengal’s participation in rural elections was always high and thus, a new power structure emerged in rural Bengal which political scientist Dwaipayan Bhattacharya termed “party society.”
By the 1990s, class dynamics gradually diminished and what remained was a struggle solely focused on retaining political power. Consequently, ‘capturing’ and control of panchayats grew into a strategic tool employed primarily to maintain political dominance.
With decrease in agricultural income and a crippling lack of rural job opportunities in Bengal, panchayat polls have once again assumed a crucial role.
Those in power at the panchayat level can dictate job creation, income generation, and the mode of execution of government initiatives. Under the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government of the 1990s, a direct flow of funds from central projects to rural bodies, bypassing the state government, was enabled. This approach gained further momentum during the Manmohan Singh government, and the Narendra Modi government has continued to follow this course. As a consequence, there has been a substantial increase in funds allocated to the panchayats.
According to the 15th Finance Commission, West Bengal is projected to receive a sum of Rs 17,199 crore for rural development between 2021 and 2026. This amount will mean an average of Rs 1 crore per year for each of the 3,317 panchayats in the state.
Even direct fund transfer schemes – which involve no intermediaries and direct crediting to a beneficiary’s account, as in the MGNREGA, PM Awas Yojana, Jal Jeevan Mission and for rural electricity – the involvement of the panchayat structure is paramount.
This makes the panchayat it not just a political power centre but also one which holds considerable sway over the rural economy, directly affecting the lives of approximately 70% of the state’s population. Controlling a panchayat allows a political party to influence land use, property rights, and resource allocation, leading to a creation of a beneficiary class who are expected to show loyalty.
Conflicts and violence among political parties during the poll process is an outcome of the competition to gain control over these valuable assets and also the rural society.
