Domkol (Bengal): “I am saying this at all workers’ meetings that if you make mischief with guns and bombs out of your love for me, then I won’t take responsibility for these actions. I am getting a lot of news of trouble by central agencies. I am warning workers and also seeing a decrease in such action now.”
Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty
The words are from Abu Taher Khan who says them at the end of a large motorcycle rally in his honour.
In the historical Murshidabad Lok Sabha seat, the former MP is a Trinamool Congress candidate this time as well.
He tells The Wire, “I admit that there is a tradition of political violence around polls, in this area. I want to stop this. I have told party workers too. Because if someone’s harmed, it becomes a difficult thing, facing their near and dear ones.”
Abu Taher Khan. Photo: Joydeep Sarkar
Khan suffers from various ailments and finds it difficult to stand. But this has not affected his selection as a candidate. He is largely understood to be unfailingly close to the party’s Raninagar MLA and senior leader Soumik Hossain.
As Khan speaks to The Wire, he is interrupted by a party worker who tells him that a TMC worker, Nurul, has chucked a bomb at a Communist Party of India (Marxist) rally at the Panipara village in Raninagar. Khan, visibly bothered, leaves hobbling and supported by his security guards.
Horse-drawn carriages number over a hundred in ancient Murshidabad. Sheikh Shafik drives one. He lives in the neighbouring village. He says, “Taher bhai is a gem of a person but only shows up during the elections. We don’t have a leader who can listen to our problems. Now, Taher bhai is suffering physically.”
Shafik is unforgiving in metaphor and adds, “I have seen that older horses cannot pull carriages.”
In the last panchayat elections, 16 people died in violence at Murshidabad alone. Similar incidents were seen in earlier polls also. The ruling TMC is accused of capturing booths in this district.
At Hariharpara, farmer Nasiruddin says that this polltime fear of violence has marked life in the constituency for the last seven or eight years. “We could not vote in the last two assembly and panchayat polls. We keep our doors closed and remain indoors.”
MP Khan, when asked about this, tells The Wire that while this is indeed the case, “things have improved.”
Murshidabad town was the capital of the Bengal-Bihar-Odisha region before the British arrived and houses the 1837 Mughal structure, the Hazarduari. While the ancient glories of Murshidabad are well known, the present is dismal. This is the district with the highest number of outbound migrant workers in the state. In cities like Dubai, Singapore, Mumbai and Delhi, construction work sites are bound to have at least one Murshidabad man, say locals.
Also read: Aboard the Karmabhumi Express, a Reporter Learns of the Dreams of Bengal’s Outbound Migrants
MP Khan blames the MGNREGS imbroglio between the Mamata Banerjee government in the state and the Narendra Modi government at the Union for this.
Wall writing for Abu Taher Khan. Photo: Joydeep Sarkar
“Didi [CM Banerjee] has said she will start a scheme for 50 days of work. I hope this will improve things. I have spent my MPLADS funds on this,” he says.
The CPI(M)’s candidate from Murshidabad parliamentary seat is state secretary Mohammad Salim.
“There is a fascist government in the Centre which is aided by the Trinamool government in the state. This binary is breaking the people. The Left is fighting in alliance with the Congress this time and we have taken poll work to the grassroots,” Salim says.
At Murshidabad, however, a towering political presence until recently had been the Congress’s leader of party in the Lok Sabha, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury. But Chowdhury is now the target of attacks by both the TMC and the Bharatiya Janata Party. Thus he has thrown his weight behind his former rivals, the Left.
A veteran Congress supporter from Nishchintapur, Mohammad Ilias, says, “I really couldn’t accept this alliance at the beginning. But to escape from TMC’s corruption and BJP’s communal politics, this is necessary.”
Congress workers walking with the red flag is a sight that many like Ilias are surprised by.
At Domkal, Chowdhury spoke at a large rally in support of Salim.
The Left-Congress rally from Hariharpara to Karimpur. Photo: Joydeep Sarkar
After noting the turnout at a bike rally from Hariharpara to Karimpur, Salim is moved. “The whole nation is behind our effort to save the country. I feel that the Left-Congress alliance will be victorious in one-third of the Lok Sabha seats at least.”
The Left-Congress alliance here could be the start of a deeper coalition, locals feel. It is clear that this is not just a friendship between Chowdhury and Salim but that workers too are keen to fight together and are often seen working in tandem.
In the panchayat polls at Murshidabad last year, TMC had swept 3090 positions out of a total of 5589. BJP got 530, CPI(M) got 563 and Congress, 1142. The others were won by independent or other parties’ candidates.
While the fight is concentrated between the Left-Congress and TMC, it is not as if the BJP is sitting. Murshidabad MLA Gourishankar Ghosh says his candidature as the MP candidate hinges on proving that these polls will be fought on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s development plank, and not on the falsehoods of the opposition. “People have been supporting BJP in larger numbers,” he says. BJP bigwigs J.P. Nadda, Rajnath Singh and Modi have all campaigned here.
A BJP party office at Murshidabad lies shut. Photo: Joydeep Sarkar.
However, the main issue remains polltime violence. At Jalangi, Bhagabangola, Domkal and Raninagar, threats are rife that a peaceful election will not be allowed. Chuapara local Sheikh Idris says, “Central forces come each time but rest during the polls. We can all see that they don’t do anything to the perpetrators.”
CPI(M) district secretary Jamir Molla agrees. “We have heard of these threats and informed the Election Commission too. But the EC is silent.”
Translated from the Bengali original by Soumashree Sarkar.
