Clashes broke out between supporters of the Trinamul Congress and the Indian Secular Front (ISF) during the filing of nominations for the rural polls at Bhangar in South 24-Parganas on Tuesday.

Several workers of Trinamul and the ISF were injured in the violence.

ISF supporters were on their way to the Bhangar 2 block development office to file papers when they were attacked by alleged Trinamul goons. Bhangar’s ISF MLA Nawsad Siddique accused Trinamul of trying to intimidate his party’s cadres and prevent them from filing their nominations.

“The violence is the handiwork of Trinamul. They had tried to prevent the filing of our nominations with bombs and guns. Our workers and even policemen were injured when Trinamul supporters burst bombs,” Nawsad said.

Rejecting Nawsad’s charge, Trinamul MLA Saokat Molla alleged that the violence was engineered by the ISF MLA and accused him of trying to disturb Trinamul MP Abhishek Banerjee’s mass outreach programme that reached Bhangar on Tuesday.

On Monday morning, ISF’s South 24-Parganas district chief Abdul Maleque Molla was allegedly assaulted byTrinamul workers at Bhangar. A few hours later, six women supporters of the ISF were allegedly locked inside the Bhangar 2 BDO office for over four hours as Trinamul workers had threatened to kill them once they came out. They had to be escorted through the rear door of the office by the police.

These incidents prompted Nawsad to declare that he would accompany the prospective candidates of his party to the Bhangar 2 BDO office on Tuesday and ensure that their nominations were filed. However, the skirmishes broke out even before Nawsad could reach the site.

Police sources said the confrontation took place in the Bijoygunge Bazar area near the block office. Stones were hurled, bombs burst and gunshots were fired during the violence. Cars and bikes were vandalised and the police were attacked.

The police had to fall back initially but later fired tear gas shells and resorted to baton charging to disperse the mob. They have arrested 14 men. The ISF claimed that all the arrested men belonged to the party and accused the law enforcers of being lenient towards Trinamul.

Baharuddin Molla, a purported ISF member, suffered a bullet injury. Baharuddin and three others were taken to the RG Kar Hospital in Calcutta for treatment.

On the other hand, Saokat claimed that a Trinamul supporter was shot at by ISF activists. He also claimed that the conflict was pre-planned by Nawsad.

“He (Nawsad) engineered this whole thing because Abhishek Banerjee’s Nabo Jowar Yatra is entering South 24-Par-ganas through Bhangar today (Tuesday). He wants to disrupt the yatra,” Saokat said.

Reacting to these allegations, the ISF MLA said had he planned to disturb Abhishek’s rally, he would have planned to file the nominations in the Bhanga I block office since that is where the Trinamul MP was going to be.

“But I did not do that. I took my supporters to Bhangar II block office to file nominations,” he said.

Bomb found in car

A crude bomb was found in the dashboard of an SUV vehicle belonging to local Trinamul leader Hakimul Islam, who is the son of local party strongman Arabul Islam. When asked about the bomb, Arabul said it was planted by Nawsad’s men.

“Why would we carry a bomb in our dashboard? It would be a risk for us. Bombs are kept elsewhere,” he said.

ISF members alleged that the police did not seize the vehicle even after a bomb was recovered from it. It was already in a ransacked condition.CPM’s central committee member Sujan Chakraborty said Trinamul had not been able to file any nomination in four days in Bhangar.

“This is why they are trying to stop the ISF,” he said. He added violence in Bhangar proved that the state police were incapable of maintaining law and order and hence must not be trusted to conduct the rural polls.

By the end of Tuesday, many ISF and CPM members filed their nominations, while many others couldn’t because of the paucity of time. They will return to the block office on Wednesday.

In a related development, BJP alleged that its supporters, who had reached the Canning block office to file their nominations, were assaulted by Trinamul Congress goons.

State BJP leaders Priyanka Tibrewal and Sajal Ghosh reached Canning after reports of the attack came in. They alleged that their party workers were assaulted in front of them. The police allegedly stood mute spectators. Several BJP workers have purportedly been injured in the conflict.