Campaign for second phase of Bengal polling came to an end on Tuesday with reports of violence coming from several places.
Former India cricketer Ashok Dinda, who is contesting on a BJP ticket from Moyna, sustained back and shoulder injuries in an attack by TMC supporters.
Elsewhere, a BJP candidate was attacked at Tamluk by TMC men and he had to be hospitalised, sources said, adding another BJP worker was beaten to death at Egra in East Midnapore.
Allegedly gangraped by TMC supporters, the woman, the wife of a BJP supporter who had campaigned with Suvendu Adhikari even on Monday evening, was in a critical condition, sources said. The Election Commission had sought reports of the incident.
Even as reports of violence came in, war of words ensued between Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Home Minister Amit Shah with each blaming the other’s outfit for the volatile situation in Bengal.
Shah on Tuesday reiterated that his party would win 200-plus seats, before condemning the TMC Government for creating an atmosphere of violence in the State, even as Mamata hit back accusing the BJP of importing and harbouring criminals in Nandigram and other parts of the State with a “vicious design of rigging the polls.”
Speaking to the reporters in the morning he said “after reaching Nandigram, I got a sad news about how a woman was raped within a 5-km of the place where Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is staying,” wondering how a woman could be raped when the Chief Minister herself a woman was staying within five km of the area.
Saying that the “large crowd assembling in the roadshows only show that the people have made up their minds to bring about a change…Suvendu Adhikari is winning from here,” Shah said, adding “Change is the mood in Bengal and Nandigram will show the way. The victory margin of the BJP should be so big that no politician will dare to fool people with false promises ever again… The party that will win Nandigram will form the Government in Bengal.”
He said, “If you defeat Mamata Didi here, the TMC will be automatically be defeated in other parts of the State.”
Dinda who first “hid beneath the car seat and then ran with the help of my security and took shelter in a BDO office,” said “one of my workers has been severely hit and he has been hospitalised. My vehicle has been completely damaged and I have received injuries to my back and shoulder.”
The TMC supporters returning from a roadshow held by TMC MP and actor Nusrat Jahan attacked Dinda’s car, sources said. The EC has sought a report on the incident sources said.
Shah, who conducted two other roadshows at Debra and Keshpur rode a four-km stretch between Bethuria and Reyapara with Adhikari by his side. Apart from Shah cine star Mithun Chakrabarty too led a roadshow at Nandigram with thousands of people joining the walk.
Hitting back at the Home Minister and his party, Mamata said it was the BJP which was creating problem in Bengal. “They have brought outsiders… we have already brought this to the notice of the Election Commission that police men from the BJP-ruled States are coming to Bengal to create violence … but the Commission has not taken any action… we have information how they are harbouring criminals in various guest houses here… is this the way you win elections by creating terror,” Mamata who travelled more than 5 km on wheel-chair said.
Betraying a tad lack of confidence apparently in the changed polarised atmosphere in Nandigram where the minorities account for about 23.5 per cent vote share, the Chief Minister said, “I could have contested from my home seat Bhawanipore also but I came to contest from Nandgiram because I had longed for it … When I put this proposal during a rally many youth expressed their enthusiasm and so I am here… I hope Nandigram will not return me empty handed.”