What Bengal thinks today rest of the country thinks tomorrow. Now this old adage needs to be rephrased.

When elections are largely becoming a peaceful exercise in most parts of India, reports of pre- and post-poll as well as election-day violence continue to hit the headlines in West Bengal. Even on May 19 as results started pouring in reports of attack on CPI (M) men and offices started coming in. So the post election violence started soon.

Given the bloody election history of Bihar this was an outstanding achievement as unlike West Bengal, the Assembly poll in Bihar was held in the backdrop of high communal and caste polarization. The BJP, in particular, left no stone unturned to whip up all sorts of passion.

In contrast neither beef, nor ‘ghar wapasi’ and love-jehad could become the election issue in West Bengal, where hardly any effort was made to woo social groups––as in Bihar––like Yadavs, Extremely Backward Castes and Dalits.

Besides, the Assembly election in Bihar took place at the height of Durga Puja and Muharram, which almost coincided. Yet the voters of the state showed a great sense of maturity and were not at all carried away by such emotional appeal.

The free and fair Assembly election of 2015 deserves a dispassionate study as Bihar, very much like West Bengal, is known for political violence. Killings on the run-up to the election, or on polling day, and after the election, were quite common. It reached its peak in 1980s. The 1984 and 1989 Lok Sabha elections witnessed widespread violence in Jehanabad and Bhojpur districts respectively leading to death of many people.

In the immediate post-Mandal years of early 1990s there was social as well as political tension. However, the advent of T N Seshan as the Chief Election Commissioner and the changing ground reality gradually helped bring down election-related violence as well as rigging.

Yet Dalit-hunting at the hands of Ranvir Sena and retaliatory Maoists massacres of upper castes continued to rock the state throughout 1990s.

But this did not happen in West Bengal, where the Left Front was often accused of indulging in what was then alleged ‘scientific rigging’ of elections.

Though casteism and communalism have no big role to play and both the major national parties––the BJP and Congress––are minor players yet political violence is quite common in West Bengal. Not only the Marxists-Trinamool clash is a common phenomenon, during the 34 years of the Left Front reign supporters of various constituents of the ruling combination would indulge in bloodletting. At many places here party loyalty seem to be more strong than caste and religious-bond. This is something very unusual about West Bengal.

Rural violence is rampant in Bihar too. That is why panchayat polls have always been more bloody than the urban local bodies’, Assembly and Lok Sabha elections.

Ten-phase of panchayat election is underway in the state. True it is not entirely peaceful as the last year’s Assembly election, yet this time violence is less than 2011 rural local bodies election. Prohibition seems to have its impact and the candidates are finding it difficult to lure voters.

Violence in rural local bodies’ poll––be it in Bihar, Bengal or elsewhere––is always puzzling as panchayats are much smaller in size than Assembly segments and voters know each other. Sometimes clashes take place even when the candidates are very close relatives. Besides, political parties are, most of the time, not directly inv olved in them.

Perhaps the attraction of big development funds and misplaced zeal to acquire power through other means at the lowest rung of democracy make the panchayat polls more violent.