'Dark chapter': BJP slams Bengal police, TMC over panchayat poll violence

At least four persons were killed and several others injured in violence on the last day of nomination filing on Thursday.

As West Bengal gears up for the panchayat polls with single-phased voting scheduled on July 8, reports of pre-poll riots have sparked a fresh war of words between the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

BJP National spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi (File Photo)

BJP on Friday alleged that the state’s election commission (SEC) was working hand-in-hand with the state government and doing nothing to control the situation.

“The gory images that are evolving every day from West Bengal are extremely saddening. What is more depressing is the state government’s insensitivity to address these issues. Even the BJP leaders have been subject to deadly violence,” said BJP National spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi while addressing a press conference in New Delhi on Friday.

At least four persons were killed and several others injured in violence on the last day of nomination filing on Thursday, with most of the strife having been reported from Bhangore, some 25 km to the southeast of Kolkata, where two persons were killed.

Trivedi claimed that 25-30 BJP workers were injured during the clashes but the West Bengal election commission had done nothing about it. “Because of this, we had to approach the court and the matter was taken under control,” he added.

“The way the West Bengal government and police is behaving is a dark chapter of India’s democratic and electoral legacy,” Trivedi said.

While slamming the West Bengal election commission which is already getting hammered by the Calcutta high court for lack of deployment of adequate security ahead of the pre-polls, the BJP spokesperson added, “Its clear that the election commission is just working as the government’s machinery and I want to ask the people who questioned democracy is finished in India, are the violence in West Bengal an example of a flourishing democracy or vanishing?”

Meanwhile, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee blamed the Indian Secular Front (ISF), an ally of the Left and Congress in the state, for the violence and said the clashes were due to local issues.

Calcutta high court had on Tuesday ordered that Central paramilitary forces must be deployed in seven sensitive districts and other areas witnessing law-and-order problems to ensure free and fair panchayat elections.

Urging the opposition to take note of the alleged “undemocratic practices” that the TMC was governing, Trivedi requested the election commission for “functioning how they are supposed to” and warned the TMC that if this continues, they will see a similar fate as of the previous state government’s ruled by the Communist Party of India (Marxist).

The Panchayat elections in West Bengal will be held in a single phase on July 8, with the counting of votes scheduled for July 11.

In the panchayat samiti, 23,486 nominations were filed, out of which 17,120 are by the opposition candidates.

In Zilla parishads, 2,877 nomination papers have been filed, out of which 2,463 are from the opposition.

In total 1,37,000 nominations have been filed for the village panchayats, out of which 94,124 are from the opposition.