With only a few days left for Saturday's rural polls, Opposition parties are putting in place strategies to combat the ruling Trinamul with the aim to protect booths and votes.
The CPM, on Tuesday, launched an online mechanism to enable the common people to lodge complaints with the party in real time. The initiative has been dubbed Paharaye Public or "people on guard".
CPM state secretary Md Salim said any individual, irrespective of political affiliation, can scan a QR code developed by the digital wing of the party and access an easy-to-fill-up form. The complainant can digitally register allegations along with the details of their respective panchayat and phone numbers. There will also be a provision to upload images and videos to support the person's allegations.
According to Salim, these forms had been developed in line with the format used by the SEC and would be available on the party's Facebook and webpage as well.
"One has to fill up similar forms to lodge a complaint with the SEC. Our forms are much simpler," Salim told this newspaper. "On one hand the allegations will be sent from the local level of the party to the SEC and the local administration as is always done. On the other, through the Paharaye Public system, we will keep track of all these allegations centrally and take them up with the administration and the poll panel simultaneously."
In case the state poll panel denies receiving complaints or tries to downplay the situation, the party will have first-hand information as a counter, Salim added.
"This system will make the entire process swift and in real time. We can mobilise our workers on the basis of this information or even move court if necessary," he said.
The BJP, on the other hand, has set up a war room headed by former IPS officer Bharati Ghosh to counter "attacks" by Trinamul.
The BJP has circulated a dedicated telephone and WhatsApp number meant for its workers and supporters to lodge allegations against the ruling dispensation. These complaints are being monitored in the war room set up at the party's Salt Lake office.
"Once the complaint is received, the team in the war room swings into action and informs the local police station or takes it up with the SEC for remedial action," a BJP source said.
But the source admitted that there were some loopholes in the system. "Often the telephone is engaged and WhatsApp messages go unnoticed," the source said.
On Tuesday, the BJP war room received an allegation that Trinamul goons attacked the saffron camp's workers and candidates at Santoshpur in Hooghly's Tarakeswar. The war room in turn informed the local police station.
Similarly, in West Midnapore's Keshpur a BJP candidate Mamata Mahato was attacked when she was about to start her campaign. Her maternal uncle Shyam Mahato received injuries, the BJP claimed. The incident was reported to the war room, which in turn took up the issue with the police.
"But only informing the police will not be enough. They will have to be persuaded constantly to take necessary action. That I think is a lacuna in our system," a state BJP office-bearer said.
As the Opposition parties fight the ruling party digitally, the battle on the streets is hotting up every day.
At a rally in Nadia's Phulia on Tuesday, BJP's Nandigram MLA and leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari asked party workers to throw away ballot boxes into the nearby waterbodies if Trinamul tried to loot the polls.
Adhikari also asked members of the BJP's youth wing to guard ballot boxes in strong rooms till July 11, when they would be opened for counting.
Sources said that Union home minister Amit Shah spoke to Bengal BJP chief Sukanta Majumdar on Tuesday afternoon.
Majumdar said Shah was aware of the "deteriorating law and order" in Bengal and asked him about the problems that BJP workers were currently facing.
