May 18  , 1998

The most  keenly contested panchayat elections in 20 years see a surge of unreal promises. The Left Front finds its rural idyll shattered by the Mamata-BJP alliance.

By Udayan Namboodiri

This month's panchayat polls in West Bengal will be its most keenly watched elections in two decades. For the first time since the CPI(M)-led Left Front (LF) came to power in 1977 -- and established an enviable panchayati network that became the cornerstone of its vast rural empire -- the entrenched coalition faces a challenge. It comes from the Trinamool Congress-BJP alliance, which made a dramatic debut in the Lok Sabha elections earlier this year and won eight of the state's 42 seats.

For years, the LF took victory for granted. The local Congress was a comatose Opposition with bickering leaders. There was no Congress personality with a stature and appeal to match that of Chief Minister Jyoti Basu. Elections were woefully one-sided. The LF's performance in the previous polls in 1993 is a case in point: 64.3 per cent of the gram panchayat seats; 72.8 per cent of panchayat samiti seats; and 87.2 per cent of zilla parishad seats.

Politics has changed since then. The Congress has virtually vanished. A chunk of it has left for Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool. The Trinamool-BJP alliance, even if sometimes uneasy, is formidable. Biman Bose, CPI(M) Central Committee member, admits, "It's a hard battle. An analysis of our rural votes in the recent polls shows losses everywhere."

The upshot of this has been unbridled populism. The LF, after decades of gloating over West Bengal's vibrant panchayat system, now talks of "super devolution" of power to the local bodies. It envisages turning barely literate panchayat leaders into dynamic administrators. They will be asked to take charge of developmental funds, give orders to engineers in power plants, manage technical institutes, and hire and fire schoolteachers and doctors.

The panchayat members will even be required to promote industrial growth. If they have the time, they could also look for potential beneficiaries for 15,000 acres of land which West Bengal intends to distribute in continuation of the LF's land-reforms programme.

All this is part of what Asim Dasgupta, Basu's US-trained finance minister, calls the LF's "alternative development policy". The budget Dasgupta presented before the Assembly in April read like a panchayat election manifesto. Much of the LF's apparently radical devolution schemes were outlined in it.

Dasgupta's foes are not sitting idle. Mamata has responded with her "Bengal Package" and "Manifesto for Panchayats". She has promised four new train links, industrial revival, more bridges and roads. In sum, she talks of the panchayat polls leading to a "new Bengal". Total bill: Rs 2,000 crore. On its part, the BJP has prepared the "Agenda for Action". It vows more investment in rural health, agriculture, agro-industry, reopening of 100 sick public-sector units (Rs 1,000 crore), and a mid-day meal scheme in schools (Rs 200 crore).

These elections bear an import beyond the immediate. In a sense, they are a referendum on a two-decade long project of rural empowerment which the LF has pursued. To the LF's ideologues, there has been a silent rural revolution. To critics, it has meant the absolute politicisation of administration, with the party becoming synonymous with the Government down to the panchayat level.

In effect, the results of these polls will clarify how successful the LF has been in transforming West Bengal's villages. Even among Marxists, there are the doubting Thomases. Take Ratan Mahato, CPI(M) panchayat member from Khemasuli village in Midnapore district. Mahato is a bitter man today: "Funds meant for development are used for paying salaries in the towns."

He should know. In 1993, the LF manifesto promised to sack doctors who did not report for duty at the health centres. Yet, the doctor allotted to Mahato's village rarely comes to work and lives in Kharagpur town, 20 km away. The 1993 manifesto also guaranteed rural electrification. That promise too was not kept. In fact, the absence of electricity is "the reason why the doctor doesn't live in the village", says Mahato.

There is a perception that Dasgupta's promises for this year too are stillborn. As a precursor to rural industrialisation, the finance minister plans to augment infrastructure. His outlay: Rs 25 crore, a piffling Rs 1.70 crore per district. For capital assistance to new industrial projects, Dasgupta has allocated Rs 200 crore. This too is seen as highly inadequate. "Besides," says Kashinath Mullick, a former zilla parishad member from Nadia, "how competently will panchayat leaders, with just enough qualification to teach in primary schools, deal with industry questions?"

On the defensive, the Marxists have gone back to their old game of blaming an "unfriendly" Centre. Picking up the gauntlet, Mamata points to her influence with the BJP-led coalition and promises to "get things done for Bengal". She cites the restoration of Calcutta's A1 status -- which will entitle Central Government employees in the city to higher emoluments -- as evidence of her clout. Strangely, the Calcutta A1 status issue became part of the pre-panchayat poll rhetoric.

Actually, there may be a method in the strangeness. As Pankaj Banerjee, Trinamool leader, puts it, "What can we do with the panchayats if the finances are still controlled by the state Government? We want to enhance our position as the only alternative to the Marxists." The panchayat polls then are only the semi-final. The final is still three years away: Jyoti vs Mamata, assembly elections, 2001.

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