A day after four Trinamool Congress (TMC) workers were allegedly murdered by CPI (M) cadre at Raidighi in South 24 Parganas district on Saturday, the TMC leadership has accused senior CPI (M) leader and former minister in the Left Front government Kanti Ganguly of being the mastermind behind the murder. Mr. Ganguly, however, rubbished the allegation, and said, “The murder occurred due to TMC’s faction feud.” Ruling party activists burnt Mr. Ganguly’s effigy in the area.
“About 40 CPI (M)-backed goons chased the TMC workers and hacked them to death,” alleged TMC district secretary in South 24 Parganas Sovan Chatterjee, while on a fact-finding mission in the area. He also said, “The conspiracy of the attack was hatched by Mr. Ganguly as the CPI (M) lost Mathurapur constituency in the general elections.” FIRs have been lodged with the local police station against 18 persons, including Mr. Ganguly. The police have arrested four persons in the case so far.
Education Minister Partha Chatterjee, who is a member of the TMC delegation that visited Raidighi, alleged that ‘the CPI (M) was working under the instruction of the BJP’. He also said Mr. Ganguly was behind the murder of four ‘active and innocent’ TMC workers. Accusing the BJP of bringing ‘all the miscreants in the State under its wing’, he said it was using the miscreants to launch attack on TMC workers.
In protest against the murder of its workers, the ruling party has decided to organise several programmes. Mr. Chatterjee said on Sunday his party would take out protest rallies across the State. “On Monday and Tuesday, the TMC will observe ‘black day’ and ‘anti-terror day’ in protest against the ‘joint conspiracy of the CPI (M) and the BJP.”
A TMC delegation comprising party’s general secretary Mukul Roy, Education Minister Partha Chatterjee, TMC district secretary in South 24 Parganas district Sovan Chatterjee, party MP Abhishek Banerjee, and senior leader Subrata Bakshi visited the place on Sunday.
The attack occurred when the TMC workers were returning from a panchayat meeting. Hasan Gaji, Atyer Mollla, Hafizul Gazi, and Chobu Molla were killed and five more TMC workers were admitted to a local hospital in a critical condition. The incident happened in the Khadi gram panchayat area around 8.20 p.m. on Saturday. When CPI (M) cadre allegedly started to hurl bombs at them, the TMC workers in a bid to save their lives took shelter in the house of a local party leader.
The incident comes in the backdrop of a strange blame game in cases of post-poll violence that has been on the rise in the State ever since the general election results were declared. Whenever a member of the TMC, CPI (M), or the BJP is killed, one party alleges that the other two have connived to commit the murder.
