Both Bengal Governor CV Ananda Bose and the Election Commission of India has sought reports from the district and State police hours after supporters of Union Minister Nishit Pramanik and Bengal Minister Udayan Guha clashed in their presence at Dinhata town in Cooch Behar district injuring a number of persons including the local Dy Superintendant of Police who tried to dissuade the two sides from fighting.
The incident took place late on Tuesday evening when Pramanik a local BJP MP was returning from an election campaign. His cavalcade was allegedly attacked by TMC men who too were in the midst of a meeting en route.
No one who promoted violence as a means of electioneering should be tolerated, the Governor said asking the Director General of Police and the District Magistrate to send reports on the incident. “I am waiting for the reports for future action,” Bose said. The ECI too asked for a detailed report on the incident from the Cooch Behar DM, sources in the district administration said adding the BJP had lodged complaints against 55 TMC workers for their alleged involvement in the incident.
State minister Guha however said that the FIR had been lodged to apprehend and terrorise the TMC workers so as to prevent them from taking part in the campaign.
The clashes sparked when Pramanik was reportedly returning from an election programme, sources said. The TMC workers who had assembled at Dinhata Bazar in another programme of Guha alleged pelted stones at Pramanik’s cavalcade, saffron workers said.
Pramanik who instantly got off his car and stomped up to the alleged said, “they had attacked first … it was a planned attack … they first shouted abuses at us and then pelted stones … we tried to steer clear of things initially and slipped past their assemblage but soon stones started landing on our vehicles … even my vehicle was hit … the cars in the tail of the cavalcade were damaged … they even hurled bombs … when I got goo my car to see what was happening they attacked me … led by their minister … they are doing so because they know that ground beneath their feat is slipping.”
Guha however retorted saying the BJP had planned the attack to create a situation and allow the administration to arrest TMC workers. “”It was a planned attack. They, with the help of central forces, got down from the convoy and started attacking the TMC workers and police with bamboo sticks and stones. .. They were shooting arrows at us … many of us have been injured … I can show you the arrows they had used in the attack inuring some of our men,” he said adding “if the BJP is thinking that they will win the elections like this I will not let that happen and even at this age I will descend on the streets to defend my workers.”
Though North Bengal is comparatively peaceful than the South Bengal areas Cooch Behar is one specific point where elections are seldom violence-free. In 2021 four people had died in police firing following disturbance on the election day.