Bengal rural poll violence hits heart of Kolkata

Kolkata: Flames of the pre-rural poll violence spread from the districts to reach the city on Saturday morning when Alipore — the South 24 Parganas district headquarters — bore the brunt of the ongoing political battle. Armed miscreants took control outside the Alipore administrative complex, threatening opposition candidates as well as mediapersons.
Reports of violence also poured in from districts throughout the day at the state election commission, prompting election commissioner Amarendra Singh to report at least “six incidents of anarchy from across the state” at a meeting of election observers at Sisir Mancha on Saturday.Singh was also alarmed at the violence shifting from block offices to SDO offices soon after the alternative venue was announced.
Trinamool Congress supporters in truckloads reached the Alipore administrative complex before filing of nominations began at 11am. They started chasing opposition candidates the moment they landed there as policemen allegedly looked the other way.
For the next half an hour, ruling party toughs took control of Alipore Road. Even mediapersons were not spared: they were stopped from using their cameras or mobile phones. This went on for some time till a force from Alipore Police chased away the mob.
“Trinamool men with firearms moved around the complex in the presence of police officers. They confronted our candidates from Bhandariya gram panchayat under Bishnupur I in front of police. We couldn’t file a single nomination,” said CPM Sourth 24 Parganas district secretary Shamik Lahiri. The change in venue from block offices to the SDO or DM’s office would hardly bring about any difference in filing of nominations, he said.
BJP leader Mukul Roy also cited the Alipore incident to explain the degree of violence. “Forget other places. Trinamool men didn’t even allow candidates to file nominations in Kolkata’s Alipore,” Roy said, a day after Calcutta High Court asked the state administration and SPs in each district to ensure peaceful filing of nominations.
Birbhum’s Mohammedbazar turned out to be the epicentre of the battle as BJP supporters armed with bows, arrows and bombs gave chase to Trinamool’s armed brigade. A large police team under SP N Suddheerkumar lathicharged the mobs and burst tear gas shells to bring the situation under control. According to police, some “outsiders”, allegedly from neighbouring Jharkhand, were behind the violence. It sparked off a heated blame game between TMC’s Birbhum president Anubrata Mandal and BJP’s Roy.
On Saturday, violence was also reported from Bankura, Nadia’s Haringhata, Murshidabad’s Lalbag and Kandi, Uttar Dinajpur’s Kaliaganj, Diamond Harbour and Burdwan town in Purba Burdwan.
A Trinamool leader’s house was attacked allegedly by BJP supporters at Kaliaganj. Ten people were injured in a clash in front of the Lalbag SDO’s office where Trinamool supporters battled with Congress, CPM and BJP. Miscreants smeared black paint on the face of former Forward Bloc MLA Biswanath Karak in Hooghly’s Goghat and thrashed women candidates when they came to collect nomination forms.
Masked men attacked CPM leader from Bankura Amiya Patra while he was leading a Left rally to file nominations. Congress supporters came under blows at Kotulpur and Barjora in Bankura, prompting party leader Manoj Chakrabarty to lead a militant protest in front of the state election commission’s office from where he was later arrested.