Bengal Governor Visits Areas Affected By Pre-Poll Clashes

Kolkata:

A day after assuring "effective and corrective action" on violence ahead of the civic body polls, West Bengal Governor Dr CV Ananda Bose today visited violence affected Bhangar in the South 24 Parganas district. Bhangar witnessed massive violence yesterday, with two feared dead, on the last day of the nominations for panchayat polls.

The West Bengal Governor had yesterday said that "effective and corrective" action will be taken against those responsible for the violence in the state.

"No words, only action. Wait and watch. You will see effective action, concrete action. That is all I can say now," he said.

The Governor had also issued a statement expressing his shock on the violence.

"Shocked to hear that the death toll in pre-election in Bengal is increasing. It is revolting that the media is also under attack by the hooligans. Victory in Elections should depend on the count of votes, not the count of dead bodies," he had said in a statement.

The Calcutta High Court has directed the State Election Commission to deploy central forces across the state within 48 hours. The ruling Trinamool, which is opposed to central forces being used for election security, said it's not worried over such deployments.

Trinamool leader Madan Mitra, however, claimed that while West Bengal is not getting "a single penny" for its development, thousands of crores will now be spent on central armed forces in the panchayat polls.

Violence was reported from Bhangar in South 24 Parganas and Chopda in Uttar Dinajpur.

Vehicles and makeshift stalls were set on fire and bombs were hurled in Bhangar's Bijoyganj Bazaar as shops remained shut out of fear.

The Trinamool and Indian Secular Front (ISF), an ally of the Left and Congress in the state, have both claimed their workers died in the violence.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has blamed the ISF for the violence and said the clashes were due to local issues.

"Our party has issued instructions that everyone should be allowed to file nominations. Over a lakh nominations have been filed, more than any other state," she told reporters.

The final day of filing nominations witnessed continued clashes across various parts of the state, including an outbreak of violence at the Block Development Office in Birbhum's Ahmadpur, where crude bombs were reportedly thrown. However, as per the officials, no casualties have been reported in the incident.

The Panchayat elections in West Bengal will be held in a single phase on July 8, with the counting of votes scheduled for July 11.