'Voting was held at 144 wards of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation. There were a few stray incidents at four-five places which were immediately taken care of by the police, for which I thank them,' Banerjee said. Surprisingly, while she appealed to the opposition parties not to 'incite unrest for the sake of political gain which would become a reason of trouble for the common man”, her own cadres were indulging in violence. Even at some places TMC’s factional feud witnessed large-scale violence.

One development was also quite significant. Within minutes of the closing of the polls at three in the evening, the 21st Party Congress of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), which was being held in Vishakhapatnam on Saturday, adopted a resolution accusing the Trinamool Congress of indulging in 'massive rigging' in the election. The resolution also put on record that the ruling Trinamool Congress mobilised 'goondas' from different parts of West Bengal and the State Election Commission with all the machinery at its command remained a silent spectator to the chaos being spread by the ruling party. The resolution underlined; “Incidents of sporadic violence were reported during voting, which is viewed as a 'semi-final' to West Bengal Assembly elections due next year.”

It was quite intriguing when the people of Kolkata were already offering the KMC on a platter to Mamata, what prompted her party leaders and cadres to resort to such whimsical violence? Why her party leaders and cadres unleashed violence even at the risk of antagonizing the common people and Bengali Bhadralok? There ought to be some plausible and tenable reason for this action. Only a day ahead of the KMC election the local media had come out with the survey report projecting TMC as the voters’ favourite which would win 93 of the 144 seats. It also projected that her challenger BJP would be completely decimated. It would not get more than 6 seats.

The worst had happened just an hour after voting closed in Kolkata municipal election. The goons owing allegiance to the Trinamool Congress had fired at a police sub-inspector in post-poll violence. In fact the PSI got bullet injuries in the intra group rivalry of the Trinamool. The incident occurred near Girish Park in north Kolkata. This was the second such incident during last couple of years a police personal was shot. In the first case a SI was shot dead by TMC goons two year back in Garden Reach area of Kolkata. At police headquarter, Lalbazar, this area is marked as the favourite hide out for the terrorists and criminals from across the Bengal border.

Ironically Mamata who visited the incident site did not utter a single word condemning the criminals. Paradoxical indeed she showered praise on the SI. Describing the condition of the injured SI as 'stable', the chief minister went on to praise him for 'good record' in the service. 'There was a scuffle at Girish Park where our SI Jagannath Mondal was hit by a bullet on his back. Doctors have seen him and they will take a decision on when to operate him for his injury...Thank God that he is okay. I wish speedy recovery of his'. Obviously Mamata did not feel perturb or intend to give too much credence to the violence.

Her observation did not reflect the government’s concern of the policemen safety and their anger. This second attack on the SI has literally shaken the confidence of the Kolkata police. An inspector’s caustic remark on Facebook speaks loud; “The reward for all the protection we provide to voters and voting machines was a bullet in the chest. The cops were victims of the political parties.” The policemen did not voice their anger or grievance publically but inside Lal Bazar, anger prevails. Policemen point earlier case was not taken to its logical end and once again an SI has been shot at. The gunshot at the SI is indeed intriguing as the police were accused by the opposition parties of helping the ruling party.

Usually a political party indulges in rigging when it finds itself on the weak pitch. But it is also a fact that a party enjoying peoples’ support can dare to indulge in such practices. A politics which cannot democratically mobilize people behind it resorts to violence. The politics of hatred resulting into vindictive assaults can be seen in Bengal. The birth of Trinamool primarily owes to depoliticisation, which resorts to violent elimination of political opponents, rather than facing the adversaries politically and ideologically. It is a known fact that Trinamool has no fundamental ideology. It born out of the compulsion to find the CPI(M) and its red terror.

What was really surprising was the meek surrender of the BJP in its strongholds. The BJP leaders who had promised the people to take the Trinamool head on were nowhere to be seen. The chinks in the BJP were out once the voting started and the TMC goons took to the streets. The loud mouth BJP state in charge Sidharth Nath Singh, on deputation to West Bengal for ensuring party’s victory had left the field open to TMC. Their absence from the battle field simply enforced the belief that they had no action plan to counter the TMC violence.

After the polling Singh, the BJP national observer for West Bengal said, “It is in the DNA of the Trinamool Congress to resort to such violence. The polls had been far from free and fair.” Now obviously the question arises since he was aware of the DMA of the TMC why did not prevail upon the central leaders and Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh to deploy the para military forces? HM had in fact bypassing the state government had informed the state BJP president that two companies of paramilitary forces would be there on the day of the polling. The state BJP President Rahul Sinha simply performed the ritual demanding that the SEC should resign, or should cancel the election and order a fresh poll.

The KMC election would witness large scale violence was known to the CPI(M). A week before the elections, a cursory glance at Ganashakti — the party’s mouthpiece — talked about how 'violence' perpetrated by the TMC is throttling the voice of the masses: the subtext being TMC resorting to violence and running roughshod over its political adversary. Ironically, this is the same accusation TMC used to hurl before coming to power.

Nevertheless, the naked use of arms power and violence underline two prime factors. First, the intra party clash between the new entrants and the old workers, and, second, the TMC taking the elections as the semi final; the final being the 2016 assembly elections. However some top leaders of the party are quite worried at the turn of the event and confide that the new entrants who crossed over from the CPI(M) after the rout of the left forces, were primarily responsible for what happened on Saturday. They have marginalized the old faithful and also give a bad name to the party. But the major question that haunts these leaders is, will the party leadership purge these elements?

The leadership does not intend to disturb the political equation that has taken shape in recent times. But it is equally skeptical of the future development. There is a lingering apprehension in the party that the police that has been at the receiving end, even politically, during all these years, may throw its weight behind these elements and opponents of the party in 2016. These leaders also point out that the BJP is also suffering with the same malaise. The influx in the rank and file of the BJP primarily owes to the change of colour by the CPI(M) cadres. During the 2011 assembly elections in the state, the BJP's vote share was just 4.06%; this went up to 16.84% during the Lok Sabha polls. Denied entry into the TMC some Marxist cadres took refuge with the BJP.

It is worth mentioning that the survey which projected that TMC would get 93 seats had also forecast that the CPI(M) would gain ground and it would have nearly 34 member in the next corporation house. The CPI (M) leaders allege that some anti-socials backed by the ruling party had extorted nearly Rs 30 crore from CPI (M) workers and their family members for allowing them to stay in their homes. Antara Bhattacharjee is one of the victims of TMC terror raj. She later joined the BJP. (IPA Service)