Bengal election campaign gets ugly

As the six phased assembly elections in West Bengal is entering into its mid-stage, the campaign for the second phase of voting ended today. On April 27, voters will cast their votes for 75 seats in three districts (Kolkata, North and South 24 Parganas). On the last day of campaign both the chief minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee and opposition leader Mamata Banerjee campaigned in Jadavpur constituency, where Buddhadev himself is contesting. Though they showed restrain while addressing the voters in their respective public meetings, the political mud-slinging has become murkier and murkier where the contestants have resorted to hurling wild allegations against their opponents, often using street level languages.

Only two days back Anil Basu, a CPI (M) state committee member and former MP from Arambag, in an election meeting compared Mamata with the women of red light areas.

As the video clip of that speech was shown in various news channels, people started protesting against this kind of attitude. Even poet Sankho Ghosh issued a statement condemning this kind of attitude on the part of some CPI (M) leaders. The chief minister promptly issued statement condemning his party leader and later forced him to tender unqualified apology to Mamata Banerjee. But, this instance is not unique in this year's election campaign. Though the chief minister himself has been showing restrain while referring to the opposition leader, his colleagues often refer to Mamata Banerjee in derogatory terms. But the opposition camp is also not free from using abusive languages. Earlier, Mamata referred to CPI(M) leader Shyamal Chakraborty's illness in a derogatory manner.