The nomination process for the third and final phase will be over on 17 June. The Opposition apprehend that this time the number of uncontested seats would surpass even the record of 2003 election. To avoid this state election commission and the opposition parties had demanded adequate deployment of central paramilitary forces from the beginning of the nomination process, but the state government did not oblige. Now that the Calcutta High Court has clarified that "there can be no controversy that primacy in such matters vests in the state election commission", the commission might move court again to put pressure on the state government on the question of deployment of paramilitary forces in adequate numbers. For the first phase (scheduled on July 2) alone the requirement is more than one lakh paramilitary personnel, whereas the state government has arranged for 45,000 state armed police. The commission, headed by Meera Pandey, has already indicated that it would ask the government to know whether the required forces would be made available on time or not. Depending on the kind of response, the commission would consider its next course of action which includes moving to apex court.
Recently, the Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde informed that he had a talk with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee over phone regarding the question of releasing central forces for the panchayat elections in Bengal. Shinde said that once the state chief secretary sent his proposal in writing stating the required number, he would make arrangement for that. Earlier, Mamata Banerjee showed a letter to the media in Kolkata saying that the Union home ministry declined to release central forces citing important reasons for that. But, the opposition in Bengal, both Left and Congress realised that unless central forces are deployed from the nomination days, the ruling Trinamool Congress (TC) with the armed goons would successfully prevent opposition candidates from filing nomination papers. According to the opposition parties, the high rate of uncontested seats in some of the districts of south Bengal is a direct consequence of that. Stories of "Bike-Bahini", armed Trinamool cadres riding motorbikes freely roaming in the rural areas and terrorising the people belonging to the opposition camp, are now doing the rounds. Anubrata Mondol, Birbhum district Trinamool Congress president, against whom a number of serious charges of violence have been raised by other Trinamool leaders in the district, declared openly that the Opposition candidates won't be allowed to file their nominations. If required he would physically resist them. Though the state election commission initiated inquiries against him, neither Mamata Banerjee nor any of her senior colleagues uttered a word of criticism against Anubrata. Instead, the government decided to give him Z-category security.
Now it seems that while the state election commission has won a favourable verdict in the high court, the government might continue with its delaying tactics by providing inadequate force to the commission, thereby dragging the matter to court again. Meanwhile the "Bike-Bahini" will take care of the third and final round of the nomination process, resulting in a record number of "uncontested seats". Omprakash Mishra, senior vice president PCC, feels that without the presence of central force during the nomination process, the Trinamool goons won't allow a good number of opposition candidates from filing nominations. Lawyer and CPI (M) leader Bikash Bhattacharjee feels that the commission should reverse the process cancelling the entire nomination and call for fresh nomination under the supervision of central forces. But, the Trinamool Congress does not accept this. Subrata Mukherjee, the panchayat minister, says that election will be held seamlessly. Another senior TC leader explains that a few cases of highhandedness might take place here and there, but the overall picture is not like that. For example, in North 24 Parganas, all the 59 seats in Zilla Parishad are having three to four corner contests. In Panchayat Samiti and Gram Panchayats not more than two to four per cent seats went uncontested.