Last year, the three-tier panchayat elections in West Bengal saw widespread violence, where Opposition candidates belonging to the Bharatiya Janata Party, Communist Party of India (Marxist), Congress, and other parties were prevented by ruling Trinamool Congress leaders and supporters, resulting in bloodshed. A similar situation was seen this time in the northeastern state of Tripura, where ruling BJP activists and supporters prevented Opposition candidates, primarily belonging to CPM and Congress.
Last week, a CPM candidate for South Tripura Zilla Parishad, Badal Shill, succumbed to his injuries after being attacked by miscreants allegedly belonging to the BJP.
When Opposition candidates were prevented from submitting their nominations during rural body polls in Bengal by the ruling TMC leaders and supporters, the BJP and its right-wing ecosystem made it an issue of democracy in crisis and rightly so, as democracy was indeed attacked in Bengal. The irony is that the same BJP, which is vocal about the health of democracy in Bengal, faces the same allegations in Tripura that TMC often faces in Bengal.
Democracy strengthens when there is an electoral contest. Winning seats uncontested by preventing Opposition candidates from submitting their nominations through muscle power isn't a healthy sign of democracy, whether in Bengal or Tripura or any part of the country.
Strangely, the right-wing ecosystem is silent on the attacks on democracy in Tripura happening under the watch of the BJP government. If Opposition candidates cannot file their nominations in various places, as reported by state media, it is a failure of the state election commission. It was its duty to ensure that Opposition candidates could file their nominations. The commission should have been tough on this, but it didn't, as reports from state media suggest.
Is Congress Overconfident In Assam?
After putting up a decent performance in the recently held Lok Sabha elections, the principal Opposition party, Congress, seems to have become overconfident. This was evident in the declaration by state party president Bhupen Kumar Borah that the Congress would contest all five assembly seats where bypolls are likely to be held soon. This announcement has caused discontent among Congress allies. Raijor Dal president Akhil Gogoi has slammed the Congress, saying it would be a historic mistake.
It is true that the Congress performed well by wresting the Jorhat and Dhubri seats from the BJP and the All India United Democratic Front, respectively, while retaining the Nagaon Parliamentary constituency. However, it is also a fact that the party failed to retain the Barpeta seat and lost Kaziranga, a new constituency. Kaziranga was created after the delimitation of the now-scrapped Kaliabor seat, which was won by Congress's Gaurav Gogoi in 2019.
Despite securing the Jorhat Lok Sabha seat, the bitter fact that the grand old party cannot negate is that it is yet to recover its lost ground among the Assamese-speaking population, where the BJP is still dominant. The success of the grand old party is that it has been largely able to gain its lost Muslim vote bank from AIUDF. For whatever little gains it made in the Assamese-dominated belt, it should be thankful to the contributions of its two regional allies - Assam Jatiya Parishad and Raijor Dal.
The five assembly vacant seats are Behali, Sidli, Bongaigaon, Samaguri, and Dholai. These seats became vacant after their elected representatives were sent to the Lok Sabha. Of these, only Samaguri was won by Congress in the last assembly election. The rest four were won by the ruling National Democratic Alliance. While the BJP won Behali and Dholai, its allies — United People Party Liberal and Asom Gana Parishad — secured Sidli and Bongaigaon seats, respectively.
ILP Demand Grows In Meghalaya
The demand for the Inner Line Permit in Meghalaya has substantially picked up. The ILP system is currently present in four northeastern states — Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Mizoram, and Manipur. Any Indian citizen who does not belong to these states must have an Inner Line Permit issued by the government to visit or stay in these states. Their duration of their stay in these states is mentioned in the ILP.
Meghalaya has long demanded the implementation of ILP. In 2019, the state assembly even adopted a resolution in support of ILP. This demand has returned to the state, with the Khasi Students Union targeting migrant workers. Around 2,500 migrant workers were driven out of the state.
Illegal immigration is definitely an important issue in the northeastern states. However, driving out migrant workers from the state isn't the solution. The state government has to be on its toes to ensure that peace is maintained in the state.
The state administration was right to register cases against the leaders of KSU for conducting unauthorised checks on migrant labourers. On the flip side, though, Manipur, where ILP was implemented in 2019, faces the issue of illegal immigration.
The author is a political commentator.
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