Eye on rural poll, CPM revs up

26 April 2012

biswabrata goswami
MIDNAPORE, 26 APRIL: With an eye on the panchayat polls, CPI-M leaders in West Midnapore are planning to build a new foundation for the party, to transform it to meet the needs of the times.
The CPI-M leadership is all set to work with local parties such as the Jharkhand Party and the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha to defeat the ruling Trinamul Congress.
Party leaders have the tough task of motivating activists when 95.6 per cent joined the party while the CPI-M was in government. They need to adapt.
In the 2003 panchayat polls the opposition Trinamul Congress and Congress was unable to field candidates in many panchayat areas. Now, it is the CPI-M that is facing this challenge ~ especially in the Junglemahal, Keshpur and Garbeta areas of the district.
In West Midnapore, the CPI-M has a majority in the zilla parishad, panchayat samitis and the gram panchayats. Yet the scene at the grassroots has gone through a sea-change since the 2011 Assembly elections. A senior district secretariat member of the party said elected CPI-M gram pradhans are being "coerced" into signing important financial proposals on rural development that they don't even support.
Party leaders allege that many block development officers are taking sides and pursuing the projects, ignoring the pradhans. They fear the Trinamul Congress might implicate the pradhans for corruption because the pradhans do not have control over expenditures.
Some party leaders want these pradhans to put in their papers and go on the offensive against the Mamata Banerjee government, well ahead of the panchayat polls. They are waiting for Alimuddin Street to take a decision on this issue.
The CPI-M won the polls in the last panchayat election in Jhargram subdivision, which is largely forested.    But, now most of the panchayats are virtually defunct due to the long absence of panchayat functionaries.  Hundreds of party members have had criminal charges slapped on them or are unable to return to their homes, a situation the Marxists didn’t face during their long stint in government.
"We have remained vigilant on the day-to-day developments in Junglemahal," said a CPI-M district secretariat member. "If the situation requires it, we will either support or make arrangements with the Jharkahand Party and the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha to defeat the Trinamul Congress in the coming panchayat polls."
Party insiders said the party is going to hold extended panchayat sub-committee meeting within a few months to frame a strategy to win back the hearts of rural residents ahead of the crucial panchayat polls scheduled for next year.
Party insiders consider the meeting very important, as the party leadership is likely to adopt policies to stop the Trinamul Congress from gaining any further ground in the rural parts of the district.