In a development unprecedented in the history of the State a concerned Bengal Governor KN Tripathi has summoned State Election Commissioner, Chief Secretary and Home Secretary following reports of large-scale pre-electoral violence over filing of nominations in the three-phase panchayat elections beginning May 1, BJP State president Dilip Ghosh said.
Even the ruling Trinamool Congress wondered how a political leader became privy to what transpired between the offices of Governor and SEC a parallel claim from poll panel office said Election CommissionerAmrendra Kumar Singh had sought appointment from Tripathi who hadgranted an audience at 12 pm on Wednesday.
The development comes in the wake of large-scale violence reported during filing of nomination for the three-tier rural polls where Opposition leaders as senior as a BJP district president and a secretary were stabbed and beaten up by armed Trinamool Congress goons who literally took control of most subdivision and block administrative offices.
What rest of India saw in a single day over Dalit unrest, Bengal witnessed in tranches for the past couple of days even as major political parties suffered at the hands of Mamata Banerjee’s men.
By the sundown reports of unremitting violence poured in from Indus, Sonamukhi and Patrasayar in Bankura, Arambagh in Hooghly, Raghunathganj, Jiaganj in Murshidabad, Mangalkot, Ketugram in Burdwan and Rampurhat, luvpur and Ilambazar in Birbhum district. In all cases the police looked the, other way, parties complained.
The audacity brimmed over in Birbhum where BJP district secretary Kalosona Mondal was badly thrashed and stabbed in his backside right inside the District Magistrate’s office and he had literally to take shelter inside the district court, sources said.
The leader was subsequently admitted to the district hospital in Siuri. In neighbouring Murshidabad, BJP district president Gouri Shankar Ghosh was thrown on the road and badly thrashed with wickets along with his party men who had gone to file nominations, source said.
At Arambagh, Goghat and other places the opposition parties were targeted irrespective of their political colours. The CPI(M) too complained of massive violence against their sub-district level leaders many of whom had been hospitalised.
Hordes of armed Trinamool hoodlums camped outside block, sub-division and district administrative offices. In many places like Birbhum their district bosses organized mass feast for the “labour” they put in to realize Chief Minister’s dreams of an opposition-less state apparently to avert a Tripura-like electoral landslide.
Back in Kolkata the Trinamool and BJP engaged in verbal matches after Dilip Ghosh claimed in the wake of his meeting with Tripathi that the Governor had summoned the SEC, Chief Secretary and Home Secretary at12 noon on Wednesday.
Wondering as to “how the political leaders became privy to whattranspired between the offices of the Governor and SEC,” State Minister Partho Chatterjee said. When asked whether the Governor summoning the SEC was out of ordinary Chatterjee said “he is well within in his limits to take certain decisions but what is unprecedented is the way certain things get leaked out or else how could Dilip Ghosh know about such development.”
He added the opposition parties were complaining because they were afraid of Mamata Banerjee’s mass popularity. Ghosh however said his party was not afraid of the Trinamool goons.“like on earlier occasions quite a few people will go to the funeral ground this time. We have asked our men not to take things lying down but give it back in equal measures. In fact they have started doing so.”