It's a test of nerves for opposition counting agents

Kolkata: When the call came, Arindam Jha was at a loss for words. A party leader wanted to know if he was still volunteering to be a CPM counting agent. The concern was natural. Jha may be a diehard CPM cadre and a local committee member, but he is also a father and a husband.
On the morning of May 4, five shots were fired at his home in Behala in an unending spiral of post-poll violence in the state.The bullets marked his middle-class home and scarred his family. So when he heads for Joka's Brotochari School on Thursday, it will be with great anxiety.
Nearly a fortnight after the shooting, none of the accused has been arrested. Jha knows them well, and says he has seen them in the neighbourhood. Behala police know them too, but unlike Jha haven't seen them yet.
Jha's biggest worry is his terrified 12-year-old daughter. She was in school when a Bengali daily reported that she could be the next target. The little girl has slipped into a shell after that. Jha and his college-teacher wife had to take leave to counsel her. "We told her that we did nothing wrong, so why should we be scared?" Jha said. "We may be dedicated party workers but we also are humans. When it comes to our children, wife and elderly parents, there is always this thought at the back of our mind - out acts shouldn't put them in any danger. But then, we belong to a party whose leaders and workers will look after us. My wife and mother support my decision," he said.
Former CPM MLA Kumkum Chakraborty, whose home was bombed, said, "Our counting agents in the Haridevpur-Joka wards will stay back in party offices. They will not return home." In Bhowanipore, the identity of Deepa Das Munshi's 14 counting agents is being kept a secret. A close Deepa aide said, "Sorry, we are not supposed to share details of counting agents."
BJP state president Dilip Ghosh has been touring the state for the past week trying to allay fear in the ranks. "This is a genuine apprehension. The manner in which polling agents were attacked is symptomatic of the rot which has set in our political system. We will watch the developments closely and act as the situation demands. The party will throw it full weight behind these party workers," he said.
Congress leader Somen Mitra, however, doesn't have any jitters because many in the Trinamool lower rungs still admire him or are indebted to him. He held several closed door meetings on Wednesday with his counting agents.
Alimuddin Street isn't leaving it to chance. It has asked CPM units to depute 14-18 counting agents per constituency. A Left delegation called on state electoral officer Sunil Gupta, demanding proper arrangements to prevent violence at counting centres. Apart from alerting the returning officers, CPM has devised its own mechanism to protect counting agents.
"Usually, police escort counting agents out of the centres and help them catch a bus or taxi. But this didn't happen at the Hastings Counting Centre during the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. Our comrades had to escort our counting agents out of the polling centres," said CPM leader Shamik Lahiri.