Giving indications that a broad-based alliance between the left and the Congress was crystalising in the grassroots, a band of Congress supporters on Wednesday withstood the Trinamool violence and thwarted an attempt by the Bengal ruling party to wrest a panchayat body from the Marxist control. In the melee three CPI(M) supporters sustained bullet injuries and two Congress men were injured by bomb splinters.
The incident an apparent rerun of what had happened on Tuesday in the neighbouring Birbhum district saw the Trinamool men trying to muscle its way in to the panchayat body elections at Humaypur in Hariharpara block of Murshidabad district.
In a 16-member House the left has 9 seats while the Trinamool and the Congress has five and two each. On Wednesday morning the members had assembled to elect the new Pradhan (chairman) when hundreds of Trinamool supporters raided the Panchayat building in a bid to hijack left members and stop them from electing a Pradhan.
Immediately the Congress supporters came to the rescue of the CPI(M) members and finally the board was won by the left, but not before the Trinamool goons injured the CPI(M) and Congress men.
In a similar incident the left had on Tuesday managed to retain a panchayat board in Birbhum with Congress help after the Trinamool tried to forcefully take the body.
Incidentally, such incidents have recently been witnessed in Nadia and Malda also where CPI(M) cadres thwarted bids by armed Trinamool men who tried to take control of the local clubs controlled by the Congress. In Bengal clubs play a major role in organizational politics insofar as “area-domination” is concerned.
Meanwhile Bengal Opposition leader Suryakanto Mishra on Wednesday reiterated the need of an alliance saying “only talks at the highest level will not suffice there has to be an alliance at the grassroots level where the left, Congress and other like-minded parties should come together and resist the Trinamool goons.”