A life in exile for women candidates in violence marred bengal elections

A life in exile for women candidates in violence marred bengal elections

Facing intimidation and death threats while filing nomination papers for the panchayat election, several women candidates representing Opposition parties have been forced to leave their homes and seek refuge in temporary shelters.

Three-year-old Rajdeep kept sucking a mango seed for almost half an hour. There is nothing his mother can give the toddler except food to keep him occupied because the family has been taking shelter at Maheshwari Sadan in Kolkata for the past eight days. The child’s mother, Pallavi Mistri (24), a resident of Mullickpur gram panchayat in the Falta Assembly segment in South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal, is a candidate for zilla parishad number 64, and had to leave her village after filing nomination papers on June 14.

Several candidates, including women who have filed nomination papers to contest the panchayat polls as Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidates, have taken shelter at Maheshwari Sadan in north Kolkata.

“From the moment we filed the nomination papers, we started receiving threats,” Raju Mistri, Ms. Pallavi’s husband, who has been staying with her since June 14, said. The rooms on the first floor of the old building were all occupied by BJP candidates who have filed nomination papers to contest the polls.

Kalpana Halder and her husband Tapas Halder, who have come from Diamond Harbour in South 24 Parganas and had taken shelter at the building, are sharing the room with the Mistri family.

The adjoining room is mostly occupied by men, who themselves or their wives, are contesting the rural polls. Pintu Sardar’s wife, Satyaparna Orang Sardar, is contesting the election from Nazat 2 gram panchayat at Sandeshkhali in North 24 Parganas. “We will have to leave our houses whether we win or lose,” Mr. Sadar said.

Nomination for the panchayat polls in the State ended on June 15 and many families, hoping the deployment of Central forces would provide them with security, returned to their villages.The Mistri family, however, went to another place which the BJP leadership calls “safe house” in South 24 Parganas since Central forces had not been deployed near their villages till June 28.

Lack of security

While the BJP leadership has set up safe houses for its candidates, those of other Opposition parties find the situation even more challenging.

Asma Khatoon had to hole up at the office of the Block Development Officer at Bhangar II for four hours on June 12 when she went there to file her nomination papers.A candidate of the Indian Secular Front (ISF), she said that she was threatened with murder in front of government officials while filing her nomination papers.

“The men cannot stand the fact that a woman is challenging them in the panchayat polls. There is an atmosphere of fear across Bhangar,” Ms. Khatoon said as she narrated how she filed her nomination after the Calcutta High Court’s intervention.

The ISF leader said that she had convinced many women to come forward and contest the polls but because of violence, some of them have given up on contesting.

“I am unable to come out of my house so there is no question of campaigning. Hopefully the situation will improve after the deployment of Central forces,” she said.

The Trinamool Congress leadership, and spokespersons such as Kunal Ghosh, have denied all allegations of threats and intimidation during the polls, and said that such allegations were an attempt to vitiate the poll process as Opposition parties did not have enough candidates to field.

About 48.86% seats in zilla parishads, panchayat samithis and gram panchayats are reserved for women in West Bengal, psephologist Biswanath Chakraborty said. “Most of the women contesting the polls are puppets to the patriarchal political system and that is evident across all parties,” Professor Chakraborty added.