“What is the use of voting? Elections will come and go but our lives will continue to be miserable,” said Parbati Let of Jamalpur in Bardhaman district of West Bengal. About a year ago, her husband, Atul Let (43), a potato farmer, committed suicide by consuming pesticide as he was unable to repay a loan of Rs. 50,000 he took for farming.
Ms. Let is struggling to sustain herself and her two sons in the face of abject poverty. Standing in the yard of her thatched hut at Bishnubati village, she pointed out that her husband had been a Trinamool Congress supporter. “They [Trinamool] did nothing for us. Instead, they spread the rumour that my husband killed himself out of marital discord,” she said. Sixteen constituencies of Bardhaman district will go to the polls on Thursday in the third phase.
Similar sentiments against the Trinamool were voiced by the family members of Dhana Tudu, Utpal Bagdi and Bhabani Porel, who committed suicide after incurring huge losses in farming. “The loss,” said Bhola Paul, a local CPI(M) activist, “was due to the low market price at that time owing to a ban imposed by the Trinamool government on potato trade with other States.”
Atul Let is among the nearly 100 farmers who committed suicide in Bardhaman district. The CPI(M) district leadership puts the figure for the entire State at 144.
About 58 per cent of the total population of Bardhaman — where almost the entire district has fertile soil — are engaged in farming. While paddy is the dominant crop, potato, sugarcane and oil seeds are also grown in large areas. In the Jamalpur area alone, potato is cultivated on about 33,000 acres of land.
The local Trinamool leadership, however, never admitted that the farmers committed suicide because of loss in farming. Sitting Trinamool MLA and Jamalpur candidate, Ujjal Pramanick, said no farmer had committed suicide in Bardhaman. “The CPI(M) is indulging in politics over deaths,” he said.
“Their campaign will not affect us as we have done our bit. We have set up 20 pumps so that farmers can use water from the Damodar river for irrigation. We have also allocated funds for an additional 150 pumps,” he said.
Senior CPI(M) leader and former Bardhaman district secretary Amal Haldar, however, feels the farmers will teach the Trinamool a lesson. “The farmers’ suicide in the most prosperous district has traumatised the voters.”
