Politics of West Bengal

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Politics in West Bengal is dominated by the following major political parties: the

All India Trinamool Congress, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the Bharatiya Janata Party, and the Indian National Congress. For many decades, the state underwent gruesome and terrible political violence.[1] Since the 2011 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election, it has been governed by the Trinamool Congress party. Previously, it was ruled by Left Front led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist)
for over three decades.

Government

History

The area's early history featured a succession of

was divided during India's independence in 1947 along religious lines into two separate entities: West Bengal, a state of India, and East Bengal, a province of Pakistan which later became independent Bangladesh
.

Indian National Congress rule(1947–1962)

Princely state merge with West Bengal

In 1950, the Princely State of Koch Bihar merged with West Bengal after King Jagaddipendra Narayan had signed the Instrument of Accession with India.[5] In 1955, the former French enclave of Chandannagar, which had passed into Indian control after 1950, was integrated into West Bengal. Portions (the then Manbhum) of Bihar were subsequently merged with West Bengal and now this region serves as the district of Purulia[citation needed]

During

Chief Minister of West Bengal
, Dr. B. C. Roy used to treat patients and never gave up his profession of a doctor. In 1954, a massive food crisis overtook the state.

United Front (1967–1969)

After the state legislative elections held in 1967, the

United Front government formed. The post of Chief Minister was given to Ajoy Mukherjee of the Bangla Congress.[citation needed
]

Naxalbari uprising

In 1967 a peasant uprising broke out in

Marxist-Naxalite
movement damaged much of the state's infrastructure, leading to a period of economic stagnation.

The

1974 smallpox epidemic killed thousands of people. West Bengal politics underwent a major change when the Left Front won the 1977 assembly election, defeating the incumbent Indian National Congress. The Left Front, led by Communist Party of India (Marxist), had governed for the state for the subsequent three and a half decades.[7]

1969 Assembly election

Fresh elections were held in West Bengal in 1969. CPI(M) emerged as the largest party in the West Bengal legislative assembly.[8] But with the active support of CPI and the Bangla Congress, Ajoy Mukherjee was returned as Chief Minister of the state. Mukherjee resigned on March 16, 1970 and the state was put under President's Rule.

Indian National Congress rule II (1972–1977)

Indian National Congress won the 1972 assembly election, and its leader

Naxal from West Bengal but his and his government's actions backfired, creating state-wide outrage against him and the then West Bengal Government. During this period, the then Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi proclaimed nationwide Emergency in 1975
.

This period was marked by large scale violence as the police force battled with the Naxalites in the state of West Bengal.

Left Front rule (1977–2011)

In the 1977 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election, the Left Front, headed by Communist Party of India (Marxist), won 231 seats thereby gaining a majority, reducing the Indian National Congress to a mere 20 seats. The first Left Front government was established with Jyoti Basu as the Chief Minister. The state saw rapid developments in this period, with the Land Reforms and the Panchayat System being two of the many notable ones. In this time, the state had become one of the leaders in agricultural output, being the leading producer of rice and the second leading producer of potatoes.

The Naxalite movement was crushed during this time.

Major incidents

1979 Marichjhanpi Massacre

The massacre in Marichjhanpi, which took place under CPI(M) rule in Bengal between January 26 and May 16, 1979, relates to the eviction of refugees from the reserved island of Marichjhanpi, Sunderbans, who had fled from East Pakistan thereby leading to the death of a sizable population among them.[9]

Out of the 14,388 families who deserted [for West Bengal], 10,260 families returned to their previous places … and the remaining 4,128 families perished in transit, died of starvation, exhaustion, and many were killed in Kashipur, Kumirmari, and Marichjhapi by police firings (Biswas 1982, 19).[10][11]

After leading the Left Front government for consecutive five terms, Jyoti Basu retired from active politics and Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee was appointed as his successor. In 2000, the Left Front came back to the power with Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee again assuming the office of the Chief Minister.[9]

The state's economic recovery gathered momentum after

Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee in 2000. About during 2007, armed activists, and Maoists have been organizing terrorist attacks in some parts of the state,[12][13] while clashes with the administration have taken place at several sensitive places on the issue of industrial land acquisition.[14][15]

Singur Tata Nano controversy

The

Magsaysay and Jnanpith Award-winning author Mahasweta Devi. Leftist activists also shared the platform with Banerjee's Trinamool Congress. The Tatas finally decided to move out of Singur on 3 October 2008. On 7 October 2008, the Tatas announced that they would be setting up the Tata Nano plant in Sanand in Gujarat after Ratan Tata received a call from the then Chief Minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi
.

Nandigram violence

The

TMC and Maoists alike. Indeed the police had to resort to firing when the armed mob refused to disperse even after much persuasion and tear gassing and started attacking the police. The then Chief Minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharya was awarded a clean-chit for non-involvement in the Nandigram violence by the CBI.[18]
The police shot 13 villagers dead and one died from a very suspicious knife-attack, thus sparking controversies whether the police were, in the least, the ones to fire. At least 30 police officers were injured in the incident.

The SEZ controversy started when the government of West Bengal decided that the

Purba Medinipur
. The villagers took over the administration of the area and all the roads to the villages were cut off.

All India Trinamool Congress rule (2011–present)

In the

Communist rule in West Bengal as well as the end of the longest serving democratically elected Communist government in the world. Mamata Banerjee, the leader of Trinamool Congress, became the chief minister. The success of the Trinamool Congress was repeated in the 2016 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election
.

Under this administration, famous scandals include:

During the

2019 Indian General election
, the BJP won 18 Lok Sabha seats sweeping the vote share of the Congress and the Left while the TMC, in spite of losing seats, increased their vote share. But in the 2021 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election, TMC secured a massive victory of 215 seats out of 294 seats.

Political Parties

National parties

Political party Flag Electoral symbol Political position Founded Founder WB unit leader Seats
Lok Sabha Rajya Sabha West Bengal Legislative Assembly
Bharatiya Janata Party
Right-wing
6 April 1980 Atal Bihari Vajpayee Sukanta Majumdar
15 / 42
2 / 16
66 / 294
Communist Party of India (Marxist) Left-wing 7 November 1964 E. M. S. Namboodiripad Mohammed Salim
0 / 42
1 / 16
0 / 294
Indian National Congress
Centre-left
28 December 1885 Allan Octavian Hume Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury
2 / 42
1 / 16
0 / 294

State parties

Political party Flag Electoral symbol Political position Founded Founder Leader Seats
Lok Sabha Rajya Sabha West Bengal Legislative Assembly
All India Trinamool Congress
Centre to Centre-left 1 January 1998 Mamata Banerjee Mamata Banerjee
25 / 42
13 / 16
221 / 294

See also

Notes and references

  1. The Telegraph. Kolkata. Archived from the original
    on 18 January 2012. Retrieved 4 March 2012.
  2. ^ "West Bengal legislative assembly". Legislative bodies in India. National Informatics Centre, India. Archived from the original on 13 March 2016. Retrieved 28 October 2006.
  3. ^ Delimitation Commission (15 February 2006). "Notification: order no. 18" (PDF). New Delhi: Election Commission of India. pp. 23–25. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 August 2011. Retrieved 11 February 2012.
  4. ^ "Composition of Rajya Sabha" (PDF). Rajya Sabha at work. New Delhi: Rajya Sabha Secretariat. pp. 24–25. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 15 February 2012.
  5. .
  6. ^ (Bennett & Hindle 1996, pp. 63–70)
  7. ^ Biswas, Soutik (2006-04-16). "Calcutta's colourless campaign". BBC. Retrieved 2006-08-26.
  8. ^ Indian National Congress had won 55 seats, Bangla Congress 33 and CPI 30. CPI(M) allies also won several seats.ECI: Statistical Report on the 1969 West Bengal Legislative Election Archived 29 November 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  9. ^ a b Bhattacharya, Snigdhendu (25 April 2011). "Ghost of Marichjhapi returns to haunt". The Hindustan Times. Archived from the original on 10 June 2015. Retrieved 5 August 2013.
  10. ^ Ross, Mallick. "The Morichjhanpi massacre: When tigers became citizens, refugees "tiger-food"" (PDF).
  11. ^ "Remembering Marichjhapi Massacre, 1979". insightyv.com. Archived from the original on 7 July 2009. Retrieved 16 May 2010.
  12. ^ Ghosh Roy, Paramasish (22 July 2005). "Maoist on Rise in West Bengal". VOA Bangla. Voice of America. Archived from the original on 12 December 2007. Retrieved 11 September 2006.
  13. ^ "Maoist Communist Centre (MCC)". Left-wing Extremist group. South Asia Terrorism Portal. Retrieved 2006-09-11.
  14. ^ "Several hurt in Singur clash". rediff News. Rediff.com India Limited. 28 January 2007. Retrieved 2007-03-15.
  15. The Telegraph. 15 March 2007. Archived from the original
    on December 4, 2012. Retrieved 2007-03-15.
  16. ^ "Terrorism and Rising Security Concerns in West Bengal | IPCS". www.ipcs.org. Retrieved 2021-11-25.
  17. ^ "2007-Nandigram violence: A state of failure". India Today. December 24, 2009. Retrieved 2021-11-25.
  18. ^ "CBI clean chit to Buddha govt on Nandigram firing". The Times of India. Retrieved 2021-11-25.
  19. ^ For more information on the Salim Group please see Sudono Salim
  20. ^ Asia Week
  21. ^ Far Easter Economic Review October 1998
  22. ^ Das, Madhuparna (2021-09-14). "Behind Bengal's Rs 1,900-cr 'coal scam' story is Class 8 dropout who began as 'petty coal thief'". ThePrint. Retrieved 2021-11-25.
  23. ^ Dhananjay Mahapatra (Oct 22, 2021). "bengal: Bengal trying to save accused, bar on CBI won't apply: Centre | India News - Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 2021-11-25.
  24. ^ "CBI arrests four persons in West Bengal coal pilferage scam". Zee News. 2021-09-27. Retrieved 2021-11-25.
  25. ^ "Coal scam case: TMC's Abhishek Banerjee to appear in front of ED on Monday". Hindustan Times. 2021-09-05. Retrieved 2021-11-25.
  26. ^ "Bengal coal scam: Delhi Court issues non-bailable warrant against accused Vinay Mishra". ANI News. Retrieved 2021-11-25.
  27. ^ "West Bengal coal scam case: TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee to appear before ED today". www.timesnownews.com. Retrieved 2021-11-25.
  28. ^ "Cattle smuggling case: CBI searches at multiple locations in West Bengal | India News - Times of India". The Times of India. PTI. Dec 31, 2020. Retrieved 2021-11-25.
  29. ^ Das, Madhuparna (2021-01-14). "8 Bengal IPS officers under CBI probe in Ponzi & cattle smuggling cases, TMC says don't care". ThePrint. Retrieved 2021-11-25.
  30. ^ "Anubrata Mondal in Tihar jail till April 3 over cattle smuggling case". The Telegraph.