A day after a Congress worker was killed in West Bengal, incidents of violence and allegations of intimidation continued on Saturday, the second day of filing of nomination papers for the panchayat polls in the State.
Congress worker Fulchand Sheikh was killed at Khargram in Murshidabad district on Friday. Family members of the deceased said that he was targeted for his political affiliations and that supporters of the Trinamool Congress were behind the attack. Three other members of the family were injured in the attack.
State Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury wrote to West Bengal Governor C. V. Ananda Bose, alleging that “rule of the jungle prevails in the State and miscreants of the ruling party were preying upon the Opposition workers”. The Congress leader sought the intervention of the Governor in conducting the panchayat election under the direct supervision of Central forces. Meanwhile, reports of violence during filing of nomination papers surfaced from various parts of the State in the districts of Birbhum, Bankura, Purba and Paschim Bardhaman, and Murshidabad.
At Labhpur in Birbhum, BJP supporters who were on the way to file nomination papers were attacked allegedly by Trinamool Congress supporters. Several BJP workers were injured in the violence. At Domkal in Murshidabad, Bashir Mollah, a local Trinamool Congress leader was caught by the police with a firearm outside the office of the Block Development Office, where candidates were filing nomination papers. At Bhangar in South 24 Parganas, a State government employee was assaulted. The government employee was targeted for giving nomination forms to candidates of the Indian Secular Front (ISF).
Reports of violence outside government offices also came from Barabani in Paschim Bardhaman and Bishnupur in Bankura. The State’s BJP leadership, including Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari, raised questions on the deployment of civic police volunteers in the process related to panchayat polls. There is a Calcutta High Court order barring the deployment of civic police volunteers in law and order duty.
“Our sources confirm that the Home Dept is planning to deploy civic volunteers posing as police personnel, by making them wear uniforms resembling the ones worn by the police. The civic volunteers would be interchanged between districts, especially in the “sensitive” districts — Jalpaiguri, Purba Medinipur, North and South 24 Parganas & Birbhum, so that they can’t be identified,” Mr. Adhikari tweeted.
Governor holds meeting
During the day, the Governor held a meeting with State Election Commissioner Rajiva Sinha. “Panchayat elections will be conducted in free and fair manner. Violence will not be tolerated at any cost,” the Governor said. The State Election Commission had said that nomination papers can be filed from June 9-15. The Calcutta High Court had observed that the time given for filing nominations was inadequate. The High Court is hearing a petition filed by the Opposition party leaders on extending time for filing of nomination papers and the deployment of Central forces for the panchayat polls.
The panchayat polls in the State will be held on July 8 for 63,239 seats at the gram panchayat level, 9,730 seats in panchayat samitis and 928 zilla parishad seats.
Trinamool denies allegations
The Trinamool Congress leaders have denied allegations of violence and intimidation. Party leaders said that the allegations were made to present the Trinamool Congress in a bad light.
Trinamool spokesperson Kunal Ghosh has come up with a unique “appeal” to the voters of the State. Mr. Ghosh said that if the Opposition parties managed to get any candidate elected, the candidate would eventually join the ruling party and so it would be better for voters to support the Trinamool. “These candidates will be guided by the inspiration which Bayron (Biswas) had. So there is no point of voting for any symbol other than us,” he said. Sagardighi MLA Bayron Biswas, who was elected on a Congress ticket in March this year, joined the Trinamool Congress a few weeks ago.
On the demand for deployment of Central forces, Mr. Ghosh pointed out that in 2021, the Trinamool had won the Assembly polls when the Central forces were deployed.
