KOLKATA: Violence continues unabated a day after four people were killed amid the formation of panchayat board across West Bengal. Massive clashes were reported in Howrah and North Dinajpur district of West Bengal. Areas like Itahar and Daspara also remained on the boil with three party cadres- TMC, Congress and BJP clashing with each other. Party cadres hurled crude bombs, pelted stones at each other as authorities rushed to the spot to control the situation. They were however, attacked by the agitated crowd.
The mass hurled stones at the police injuring several policemen in the attack. Cadres even torched a police vehicle in Itahar, and in retaliation, the police had to resort to tear gas shelling and lathicharge. North Dinajpur's Itahar has a total of 25 seats, out of which BJP bagged 13 and TMC managed to secure 12. In Daspur gram panchayat, all 13 seats were won by the TMC.
Meanwhile, clashes broke out again in Howrah's Uluberia area over the formation of the panchayat board. BJP cadres clashed with the TMC and the situation remained tense for the second consecutive day in Uluberia. Out of the total 18 seats in the village gram panchayat, BJP secured 10, TMC secured 7 and one independent candidate won, who later joined the TMC. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has claimed that outsiders from Jharkhand were creating unrest in the panchayat
She said, “BJP is helping outsiders from Jharkhand to enter into Bengal and create an environment of unrest. BJP believes in the idea of political murders. They killed a veteran TMC leader in Jhargram. We are not going to take this lightly.” BJP state president Dilip Ghosh hit back at the leader alleging that his party cadres were being attacked by TMC in most of the districts. “The panchayat board formation is not taking place in a fair manner. We will not allow the formation of the boards till we are given an assurance that the process will take place in a fair manner,” Ghosh said.
