KOLKATA: Union home minister Amit Shah is concerned about the prevailing situation in West Bengal and is likely to visit the state in August, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Bengal chief Sukanta Majumdar said on Saturday a day after meeting the Shah in Delhi.
“Amit ji is expected to visit West Bengal in August. The date will depend on his programme. He is concerned about the prevailing situation in West Bengal. He wants peace to return. He wishes that not a single death from any party happens anymore,” Majumdar told reporters after returning to Kolkata.
Majumdar said he briefed the home minister about the continuing violence in the state and that the union minister is monitoring the situation.
“As central forces have been deployed in the state on the orders of the Calcutta high court to contain violence, the Union home minister is looking into every issue and is monitoring all the developments,” Majumdar said.
West Bengal governor CV Ananda Bose who has faulted the management of the three-tier panchayat elections by Bengal’s state election commission also met Shah earlier this week.
Majumdar’s announcement about Amit Shah’s possible visit came against the backdrop of reports of two more people dying on Saturday, taking the toll to 54 in alleged poll-related violence since June 8 when the rural polls were announced. A Trinamool Congress worker from Bhangore in South 24 Parganas, who sustained injuries in a pre-poll clash, succumbed at a hospital in Kolkata and a TMC worker was killed in the Canning area of the same district
{{/usCountry}}Majumdar’s announcement about Amit Shah’s possible visit came against the backdrop of reports of two more people dying on Saturday, taking the toll to 54 in alleged poll-related violence since June 8 when the rural polls were announced. A Trinamool Congress worker from Bhangore in South 24 Parganas, who sustained injuries in a pre-poll clash, succumbed at a hospital in Kolkata and a TMC worker was killed in the Canning area of the same district
{{/usCountry}}Police said two children were also injured in Salar area of Murshidabad district when they mistook a crude bomb to be a ball and were playing with it.
To be sure, the police had found many bombs hidden in barrels, drums and bags from multiple places of Rejinagar in Murshidabad, Bhangore in South 24 Parganas and Margram in Birbhum.
TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh told reporters that the BJP was orchestrating the attacks and violence.
“They are triggering the violence because they want dead bodies to do politics of Article 355. Adhikari is responsible for all this,” Ghosh said, a reference to a widely circulated video on social media who showed Adhikari saying that an atmosphere has to be created where Article 355 can be implemented. HT couldn’t verify the authenticity of the video.