Clashes between ruling party activists and supporters of the Opposition parties continued to break out on Friday, the fifth day of the filing of the nomination papers in Hooghly and Murshidabad, with the feuding parties’ leaders continuing a war of words.
A CPI-M party leader and two activists were beaten up at Arambag in Hooghly while a vehicle on duty of higher secondary examination was damaged in Nabagram in Murshidabad when it was caught between a clash between two warring groups during the day.
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Mr. Purnendu Chatterjee the Arambagh CPI(M)committee secretary alleged, “From morning the ruling party workers kept an eye on the movement of our party leaders and workers and attacked them, brutally thrashing our leader Khandekar Jahangir together with ourt party activists Tapan Mukherjee and Tarun Roy at the very exit point of our zonal party office in Arambagh prevented us from filing our nomination papers.”
Trinamul Arambagh block working president, Sheikh Abdul Salim refuted all the charges and said, “None of our party workers were involved in any kind of violent activities, moreover the CPI(M) could not put up any candidate for the panchayat seat.”
Jangipara’s Trinamul MLA, Snehasis Chakraborty on Friday visited the injured party workers in the hospital. Meanwhile, ruling party workers now divided in two factions, one following Chakraborty and the other, president of Jangipara block Mondulika gram panchayat on Friday got involved in violent clashes over filing of nomination papers, sources said.
Two motorbikes and three SUVs were damged in intraparty clashes, it was learnt though the police soon overpowered the violent party workers and dispersed them.
Three persons have been arrested while the injured party activists have been hospitalised. In several areas of Murshidabad district, the opposition parties like CPIM, Congress and BJP allegedly failed to file nominations on Friday for the Panchayat polls.
According to sources, violence over poll nominations rocked areas around block development offices of Nabagram, Raghunathganj and some other blocks of Murshidabad district on Friday.
Miscreants ransacked a vehicle on examination duty when it was caught in clash between Trinamool Congress activists and the combined forces of Congress and CPIM cadres near Nabagram BDO office premises.
Worst-hit by pre-poll violence throughout the day on Friday were Nabagram and Raghunathganj-I and II blocks, sources said. Violent incidents like stonepelting, bombing etc were reported from both Nabagram and Raghunathganj.
With miscreants exploding improvised bombs, panic spread as smoke engulfed the approach lanes towards the sub-divisional magistrate’s office of Jangipur, accordig to eye-witnesses.
Both the Congress and CPI-M party leaders alleged that their candidates could not file nominations on Friday due to violence and unprovoked attack on them. As a result, the ruling Trinamul candidates are likely to emerge uncontested winners from Nabagram and Raghunathganj-I and II blocks, said the Left leaders here.
The Trinamul-backed hooligans disrupted nomination process of the Opposition parties, alleged Mr. Jayanta Das, a district Congress spokesman.
The Nabagram MLA, Kanai Mondal of CPIM alleged that he was beaten up by the TMC goons while his party candidates were not allowed to file nominations.
Meanwhile, the district BJP leaders on Friday alleged that their party candidate, Mr. Krishanu Das was robbed of his belongings like cash, a mobile phone and a gold chain when he was attacked by Trinamul goons on his way to Behrampore BDO office. Mr. Das could not file nominations on Friday due to the attack on him, alleged Sakharav Sarkar, a BJP leader in Murshidabad.
