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In Bengal, BJP leader's 'Russia-Ukraine' jab on clashes with Trinamool workers
The Calcutta high court has ordered the deployment of central forces to ensure free and fair panchayat elections.
Violence continues in Bengal ahead of panchayat elections which are scheduled to be held on July 8. Fresh clashes erupted between Trinamool Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party workers during filing of nomination papers in Bankura. Video shared by PTI showed security personnel rushing to control the situation as TMC and BJP workers clashed with each other.
“The way bombs are being hurled at BJP workers, it seems that we are in Russia or Ukraine,” BJP leader Agnimitra Paul told PTI.
This comes a day after the Calcutta high court ordered the deployment of central forces to ensure free and fair panchayat elections. The high court also refused to extend polling date or period for filing nominations.
A division bench headed by chief justice TS Sivagnanam ordered the state election commission to install CCTV cameras in all polling stations. The court order had come on separate pleas filed by leader of opposition Suvendu Adhikari of the BJP and state Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury after the state poll panel chief Rajiva Sinha had announced the schedule of three tier-zilla parishads, panchayat samitis and gram panchayats- elections.
The Bengal poll panel has earmarked Midnapore, Jalpaiguri, Birbhum, North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas, Hooghly and Murshidabad as sensitive districts. The panchayati raj institutions govern 65 per cent population of the state at grassroots levels.
The panchayat polls are a test for the BJP which is seeking to retain its position as the principal opposition in the state ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
"Although we are organisationally in a much better position than we were in 2018, it is also true that this time we are not the only ones fighting the TMC, unlike in the last panchayat polls. The CPI (M)-Congress alliance, as per the last few local polls and by-elections, have regained much lost ground," BJP national secretary Anupam Hazra told PTI.
In the village panchayat polls held in 2018, the Trinamool Congress had won 90 per cent of the seats and captured all the 22 zilla parishads. The elections were marred by widespread violence, with the opposition alleging its candidates were stopped from filing nominations in several seats.
