An all-women team on guard at Checkpost Colony. Picture by Main Uddin Chisti

Dinhata (Cooch Behar), May 13: In saris but with lathis and flashlights, the women of Checkpost Colony are sitting out the nights, guarding their men against CPM cadres.

The night vigil is a preventive measure, the women said, against the CPM’s coercive tactics in a village that is close to the traffic checkpost of the Dinhata-Cooch Behar Road and 5km from the heart of the town. The “guards” consist of supporters of the Forward Block and the Congress.

As soon as the “night guards” saw a journalist of The Telegraph entering the Putimari area on a motorcycle around 12 midnight, they got off a bamboo machan they had built to sit on and asked for identification. When told that it was the media, the women relaxed.

“Do not mind, we thought you were a CPM cadre. You see, at first, they tried to win us over to their side by distributing cash and even saris. When we rejected the gifts, they threatened us saying that our men would be beheaded,” said Chhalima Bibi.

Minu Das, another of the “guards”, said the menfolk have been told to sleep indoors. “We women are enough to tackle the CPM’s hooligans,” she said.

CPM leaders come to the village in the morning to campaign. “But in the evenings they return, some of them inebriated, with cash and gifts. There is no harm in campaigning at night, but we don’t like their nocturnal forays,” said Noorjahan Bibi.

She said two days ago when the men had started the vigil, CPM cadres had assembled at a supporter’s house with lathis. “Suddenly there was tension in the area. We came outside and urged our menfolk to go inside,” said one of the women. “The CPM cadres slunk off as they knew they would be in trouble if they attacked us.”

A Bloc zonal committee member of Putimari I, Kashi Basunia, said in the last panchayat polls the CPM had won from Checkpost Colony and Basgirerdham, two seats under the Putimari I panchayat. “But for the next five years they did precious little in the name of village development and stole the funds showing false reports,” Basunia said.

He said this time the disgruntled people have decided not to vote the CPM back to power. Benubadal Chakrabarty, a CPM district secretariat member, said the allegations were baseless.