Maoists, opposition a big worry for CPI-M in Bengal

POLL CRY: Writings on wall proclaim support for CPI (Maoists) in a West Bengal village.

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Keywords: West Bengal, CPI-M

Bashpahari (West Bengal): Ahead of the panchayat polls, the ultra-Left radicals may not be the only cause of worry for the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) in the Maoist-inflicted regions of West Bengal.

Like many others at Bashpahari in West Bengal's West Midnapore district, the family of Sarat Murmu barely makes a living by making ropes from twigs of weaver bird's nest.

With six mouths to feed and no agriculture, Murmu's children are undernourished.

It is in grossly underdeveloped villages Bashpahari that the Left Front government's claims about the success of the three-tier panchayat system fall flat on its face.

"We requested and put applications several times to the panchayat to solve our water crisis. We only get assurances but months and years pass without any relief," Sarat Murmu says.

Abject poverty among the local people and the absence of even the slightest touch of development in the remote villages like Bashpahari has encouraged people to sympathise with the Maoists.

The panchayat office in the Chakadoba area of Bashpahari bordering Jharkhand closed down after Maoists made their presence felt on its walls.

Several political murders with CPI-M as the prime target and multiple landmine blasts have taken place on the roads of the villages in the recent past.

Flags bear testimony to a secret meeting held by the Maoists only a day before.

While gearing up for the panchayat polls in the area, the CPI-M fears the worst.

"I just had a message from my party that they might launch an assault on me. That's no surprise to me. But I can't run away for fear of them," CPI-M leader in Bashpahari, Anil Mahato, says.

Various factions of the Jharkhand Party and the Trinamul Congress have also fielded candidates in this Left stronghold.

Though no formal calls for poll boycott have been made by the Maoists, underdevelopment and the grass root level arrangement within the opposition parties is clearly worrying the CPI-M.

(With inputs from Santanu Mondal)