Amid ongoing post poll violence in different parts of Bengal, including Bhatpara-Kakinara industrial belt of North 24 Parganas in the northern fringes of Kolkata where the TMC and BJP workers continued to fight with crude bombs and guns for the third day on Tuesday senior saffron leader Kailash Vijayvargiya alleged that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee could get his party’s Barrackpore Lok Sabha candidate Arjun Singh eliminated in an encounter.
Arjun Singh a four-time TMC MLA and strongman from Bhatpara-Naihati region joined the BJP just before the Lok Sabha elections after he was refused nomination for the parliamentary seat. He is contesting on a Lotus ticket against the TMC’s outgoing MP Dinesh Trivedi.
Vijabargiya, also the party’s observer for Bengal tweeted, the Mamata Banerjee had ordered the arrest of Singh who could even be bumped of in an encounter warning the Chief Minister would be held responsible if anything happened to his party candidate.
Violence continued to take its toll throughout Bengal while a youth was shot dead near Kharagpur IIT and another three persons getting grievously injured in a shootout at Sitai village in Coochbehar of North Bengal. In both the cases the BJP claimed the victims as their supporters accusing the TMC for the violence.
But the Bhatpara Assembly segment under Barrackpore parliamentary constituency remained the epicenter of violence with the supporters of BJP and TMC continued to fight overnight defying prohibitory orders.
Things took turn for worse when BJP workers blockaded road and suburban trains for three hours on Tuesday morning demanding arrest of the alleged TMC goons who had reportedly been on the rampage for the past several days. Train passengers narrowly escaped injury as crude bombs were hurled and stones were pelted at the static trains, sources said, adding police and the Central forces had been deployed and were conducting route-marches through out Bhatpara region known otherwise for its notoriety.
A group of BJP leaders led by State party president Dilip Ghosh on Tuesday met State Governor KN Tripathi “drawing his attention towards the ongoing violence where the BJP workers are being targeted.”
Ghosh said, “never in the history of Bengal such things have been noticed,” he said reminding “in 2009 Parivartan had ensued with the Left getting lesser seats than TMC in Lok Sabha elections. But there was no violence then. It was a smooth transition of power. The ongoing violence is only a prelude to what we are likely to see after the poll results are out.” He warned “if the TMC goons resort to violence the BJP will give a befitting reply.”
Meanwhile, the Election Commission on Tuesday ordered re-polling at one booth in North Kolkata where BJP’s Rahul Sinha, TMC’s Sudip Bandopadhyay and CPI(M)’s Koninika Ghosh were engaged in a multi-cornered fight.
The election would take place at booth number 200 on Wednesday a day ahead of the counting of votes.