More deaths related to the West Bengal panchayat elections were reported on Saturday, including that of a Trinamool Congress worker who was injured in a clash at Bhangar in South 24 Parganas district.
According to the police, the victim Seikh Moslem died of injuries he sustained on July 7 in an attack allegedly by Indian Secular Front (ISF) supporters.
Meanwhile, Nantu Gazi, a local Trinamool Congress booth president, was hacked to death at Canning Itkhola gram panchayat in the same district. His family members alleged that the ISF was behind the murder.
Over a week after polling for the panchayat elections took place on July 8, political clashes and deaths have not stopped. More than 40 people have lost their lives so far in the month-long violence, which started with the notification of the elections on June 8.
Two children injured in blast
Meanwhile, officials said bombs have been recovered from several places in the State. While explosives were recovered from five places in Murshidabad district, several crude bombs were also seized in Bhangar and Dubrajpur in Birbhum district, they added.
At Murshidabad Salar, two children were injured in a crude bomb explosion on Saturday morning. The children were playing in a field when a socket bomb exploded. They are undergoing treatment at a health facility in Purba Bardhaman district.
In a separate development, State Bharatiya Janata Party president Sukanta Majumdar said that Union Home Minister Amit Shah is expected to visit the State in August.
He met Mr. Shah in Delhi on Friday. “Amitji is expected to visit West Bengal in August. The date will depend on his programmes. He is concerned about the prevailing situation in Bengal,” he added.
Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari visited the offices of the BJP at Amta and Baruipur in South 24 Parganas, where party supporters had taken shelter amid the violence. The BJP MLA blamed Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for the violence and said the party activists had to flee their homes either for contesting the rural polls or for supporting the party. “The party will take their responsibility till they return to their houses,” he added.
The party also said that a worker in Paschim Medinipur’s Garbeta was not beaten up but was made to drink urine by miscreants.
Hitting back, Trinamool spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said the BJP was raising these allegations to divert the public attention from its defeat in the polls.
BJP MP writes to Speaker
In another development, the BJP MP from Bishnupur, Saumitra Khan, on Saturday wrote a letter to Lok Speaker Om Birla seeking action against Trinamool MP Abhishek Banerjee for targeting the judiciary.
A day earlier, Mr. Banerjee had accused a section of the Calcutta High Court of acting in a partisan manner and said the “judiciary is helping the BJP and protecting it”.
“Respected Sir, I would like to inform you that, the manner in which Member of Parliament from Diamond Harbour, West Bengal, Abhishek Banerjee has commented against the Hon’ble High Court, Kolkata yesterday, is derogatory to our Constitution as well as to the judicial system of our country,” Mr. Khan wrote.
