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1 dies in crude bomb explosion as Bengal inches closer to rural polls
3 people also sustained minor injuries after the bombs were allegedly hurled between workers of the TMC and the Congress
One person was killed in a crude-bomb explosion in West Bengal’s Murshidabad district on Saturday, sparking off a political war of words between the ruling Trinamool Congress and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) attacking each other for engaging criminals to spread panic in the run up to the July 8 panchayat elections.
The development came even as central forces, deputed on the directions of the Calcutta high court, on Saturday held a route march in Bolpur town of Birbhum district.
“The explosion took place in the morning in a jute field at Beldanga,” a police officer said, requesting anonymity. “The dead was identified as Alim Sheikh (53). Investigation is going on.”
According to the police, three people were injured in the explosion and were rushed to a local hospital.
A resident of Kapasdanga village in Beldanga, Sheikh had prior criminal cases registered against him, the officer added.
Meanwhile, three people also sustained minor injuries after crude bombs were allegedly hurled between workers of the TMC and the Congress at Raninagar in Murshidabad, police said.
Six people were injured in a clash between workers or two parties at Gosaba in South 24 Parganas during poll campaigning. At Dantan in West Midnapore, a BJP candidate was allegedly beaten up by TMC workers.
Political clashes erupted at several places across the eastern state soon after the three-tier panchayat elections were announced on June 8, prompting the high court order the State Election Commission (SEC) to seek deployment of central forces.
Following the high court’s order — which asked the poll body to deploy more forces than the 82,000 paramilitary personnel deployed in 2013 — the SEC has sought 822 companies of central forces from the ministry of home affairs. On Friday, the Centre sanctioned 315 companies, besides the 22 companies sanctioned earlier.
One company of paramilitary forces reached Jalpaiguri on Friday evening and was posted at the Panchayat Training Centre in the Mohitnagar area.
According to the state police, at least nine people have been killed in political clashes in the run-up to the panchayat polls so far. TMC chief and chief minister Mamata Banerjee is likely to start her full-scale campaign for the panchayat polls on Monday.
Following the crude bomb explosions on Saturday, the BJP and the Congress attacked the TMC, accusing it of engaging criminals to make crude bombs to spread panic, even as the ruling party claimed the two opposition parties were trying to create disturbances and show the state in poor light.
“The incidents reveal TMC’s bigger game-plan to intimidate opposition candidates and prevent their supporters from going out to vote,” BJP national vice-president Dilip Ghosh told reporters.
State Congress chief and Lok Sabha MP Adhir Ranjan Choudhury alleged that miscreants sheltered by the ruling party are making bombs to trigger widespread unrest. “We don’t have faith in police as they are not taking action against local-level Trinamool leaders,” he added.
Joy Prakash Majumdar, TMC spokesperson, claimed there was no evidence in the Beldanga incident to prove his party’s involvement. The BJP and the Congress are engaging miscreants to make bombs and create disturbances to show West Bengal in poor light, he alleged.
“The BJP is inciting violence. They know that they have lost the people’s support…,” TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh told reporters.
