A number of CPI(ML) candidates have won in the recent panchayat by-elections in Bihar. In Patna district, our Party candidates won one Zila Parishad seat, two Panchayat Samiti seats, one Mukhiya and seven Ward Member seats. In Jarkha panchayat our candidate Babunand Kunwar won the Mukhiya post by a huge margin defeating the PWG-RJD supported candidate. This seat had fallen vacant due to the assassination of Comrade Mandip Goswami, the erstwhile Mukhiya, who was killed along with four other comrades by PWG-RJD goons on the night of 18 August at our Paliganj Party Office. In Masaurhi block, Comrade Kunti Devi won the Panchayat Samiti Member seat from Kharant by a margin of 830 votes. She polled a total of 1236 votes. Comrade Phuljharia Devi won Naubatpur South Zila Parishad seat by a margin of 2830 votes. In Raksia Panchayat Samiti in Paliganj,where the seat had fallen vacant after the killing of Comrade Rajeshwar Mochi, Block Pramukh of Dulhin Bazar, by the PWG-RJD goons, our total votes increased, though still we lost this seat by a thin margin. In Siwan we won one Panchayat Samiti seat and one Ward Member post, and in Bhojpur we won another Mukhiya post.
Every inch of available space on Patna’s walls are plastered with posters announcing Laloo’s ‘Mazdoor-Kisan Maharaila’. Ironically, this is undercut by the ongoing State-wide strike of Government Employees.
On December 10, Government Employees all over Bihar launched an indefinite and total strike with a 7-point charter of demands. Participants included Government employees in all sectors, teachers and employees of the corporations and municipality. The employees are demanding implementation of an agreement reached in 1999, in which the then Laloo Government had agreed to implement the Central Pay Scale and Service Conditions. The employees are also demanding that the retirement age be fixed at 60 years, and are protesting against the retrenchment and demotions of thousands of employees. The wholesale retrenchment of employees has hit basic services hard – for instance in the crucial sector of irrigation.
The hartal at the New Secretariat has been addressed by AICCTU General Secretary Swapan Mukherjee, CPI(ML) General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, State Secretary Ramjatan Sharma as well as other leaders. The movement is being led by the All India President of AICCTU, Yogeshwar Gope. The strike, which has been complete ever since the first day not only at Patna but also in all districts, blocks and subdivisions of Bihar, is still ongoing. The CPI(ML) has announced a Solidarity Week from 16-22 December, in support of the Strike. On December 17, protests will be held at every Block in the State. The employees have announced that if their demands are not met, they will organise protests at all District Head Quarters on December 27.
On December 15, hundreds of students led by AISA gheraoed a meeting of the Senate of Patna University, demanding Central University Status for Patna University, Students’ Union Elections as well as an end to criminalisation on the campus.
The crackdown faced by these protesting students was remarkable because not only did the police indulge in indiscriminate arrests and lathi charge, they also actively encouraged notorious RJD-sponsored lumpens of the campus to attack the students. As a result, several students were severely injured and admitted to the Patna Medical College Hospital.
In protest against this assault, AISA organised a bandh of the Patna University the next day; in the course of this bandh, students responded enthusiastically but clashes between RJD-sponsored goons and AISA activists and common students continued. AISA is planning to involve other student groups in taking the struggle forward.