A young CPM worker from North Dinajpur, hit by a bullet in his head during an attack by suspected Trinamul-backed goons on June 15, died at a private nursing home in Siliguri early on Wednesday.
The death of Mansur Alam, 23, has once again raised questions on the role of the state election commission and state police, particularly in Chopra, the administrative block in North Dinajpur, where the youth was from.
Trinamul won uncontested in all seats in all three tiers of the panchayat across the block.
According to sources, Chopra block has three zilla parishad seats, 24 seats in the panchayat samiti and 217 seats in eight panchayats. As the withdrawal of nominations ended on Tuesday, it was found Trinamul won all these seats uncontested.
“The parties in Opposition don’t have any support base here. People are not with them. That is why they made baseless allegations that we stopped them from filing nominations. There will be no panchayat election across the block and so we have decided to send our party flags, festoons and other publicity materials to other blocks so that our party colleagues can use them for campaigns in their areas,” said Hamidul Rehman, the Trinamul MLA of Chopra.
That Chopra was sitting on a stockpile of such firearms and crude bombs became evident when suspected Trinamul supporters opened fire at a group of CPM and Congress workers and supporters on June 15 while they was on their way to the BDO office to submit their nominations. Alam and three others were hit by bullets.
“The parties in Opposition had joined hands in Chopra this time and people were supporting us. This prompted Trinamul to unleash violence and attack our people in a planned manner. It is because of them that we lost a young worker. They are shamelessly celebrating that they have won all seats without contest,” said Anwarul Haque, the district CPM secretary.
PCC chief Adhir Ranjan Choudhury has also slammed Mamata Banerjee’s party.
“If our candidates lack support base, they will lose elections. Why did Trinamul prevent them then (from filing nominations)? The ruling party of the state has turned the panchayat elections into a farce,” he said.
Suvendu Adhikari, the leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, referred to the loss of lives in political violence ahead of rural polls. He published a list of people, including Alam, who died since the elections were announced.
Deceased Mansoor Alam. File photo
“Unconfirmed news reports suggest that the death toll might be higher. Also the figure may increase as several people are in hospital with grievous bullet and splinter injuries,” he tweeted.
Located close to Darjeeling district, Chopra in North Dinajpur is known for political violence.
In the past two decades, there have been political murders and attacks. In 2003, Akbar Ali, a CPM leader, was lynched in Lalbazar area of the block just a day ahead of the rural polls. Agitated CPM workers attacked a local police outpost. In the resultant police firing, two CPM workers died.
In 2018, ahead of the panchayat elections, a number of political clashes occurred in the area. Aren Singha, a BJP worker, was gunned down during a public meeting.
This time, ahead of the 2023 panchayat elections, violence erupted again. On March 26, Baisakhu Barman, a Congress worker, was lynched by suspected Trinamul supporters in Lakkhipur. Ahead of it, on March 9, two factions of Trinamul clashed over the selection of candidates. Gunshots were fired. Faizul Rehman, a Trinamul leader, died. Three others got injured. The situation went to an extent where Kanaialal Agarwala, the district Trinamul chief, requested the police to conduct raids and seize illegal firearms.
