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Nine killed in poll violence in West Bengal

Special Correspondent

Additional BSF companies deployed in affected area
Violence in Domkol unfortunate, says Home Secretary

KOLKATA: Nine persons were killed and several others injured in sporadic incidents of violence that erupted during the third and final phase of the panchayat elections in West Bengal on Sunday when seven districts went to the polls.

The deaths were reported from Murshidabad district. While clashes, in which supporters of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Congress hurled bombs at each other, claimed eight lives, one person died in violence not related to any political rivalry.

There were also minor disturbances in some areas in Birbhum, North Dinajpur and Malda districts .

CPI(M) and Congress leaders blamed supporters of the rival party for trying to capture booths and snatching ballot boxes in areas where the disturbances occurred.

The worst affected area was Domkol in Murshidabad district, considered a stronghold of the Congress. Describing the violence in Domkol as “unfortunate” the State’s Home Secretary, Ashok Mohan Chakravarty, said the local administration had been asked to ascertain whether or not there were any shortcomings on the part of the police while patrolling in the area. Additional companies of the Border Security Force had been deployed in the affected area.

Biman Bose appeal

A recent appeal by Biman Bose, chairman of the Left Front Committee, to Front partners to exercise restraint in areas where attempts at seat adjustments had failed, seems to have achieved the desired results in the seven districts of West Bengal where panchayat elections were held on Sunday.

Unlike the second phase of the polls on May 14, there were no reports of any major clash between supporters of the Left Front constituents even in areas where the parties had not been able to arrive at a consensus over seats.

Mr. Bose’s appeal had come in the wake of clashes between supporters of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Revolutionary Socialist Party in the Basanti area of South 24 Parganas district during polling. Four persons were killed in the clashes.

Though unity among the Left Front partners at the local level was undermined in certain areas of Cooch Behar, where seat adjustments for the polls between the CPI (M) and the All India Forward Bloc remained elusive, the elections were largely peaceful in the district.

The focus in Cooch Behar district was on Dinhata, where five supporters of the AIFB died in police firing early in February – an incident that led to considerable resentment within the Left Front. There was no report of any untoward incident from the area on Sunday.

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