A Left Front delegation met West Bengal Governor M. K. Narayanan at the Raj Bhavan here on Monday and brought to his attention alleged violence unleashed on their supporters after the election results.
Senior CPI(M) leader and member of the party's Central Committee Mohd. Salim said that ever since the results started coming in, there were a series of attacks. Three Communist Party of India (Marxist) supporters were killed — Purnima Ghoroi at Raina in Bardhaman district, Jiten Nandy at Garbeta in Paschim Medinipur and Ajit Lohr at Saltora in Bankura district.
“The Governor has assured us that in the coming 48 hours, he will ensure an end to these attacks,” Mr. Salim said adding Mr. Narayanan said he was aware of the attacks and met Director-General of Police Naparajit Mukherjee and city Commissioner of Police Ranjit Kumar Pachnanda earlier in the day.
Mr. Salim said four women were gang-raped at Minakhan in North 24 Parganas district on Sunday after evicting the men of the village.
“Elected representatives of panchayats, co-operatives, zila parishads, school management committees are being forced to resign at gun-point,” he said adding local party offices were being attacked by Trinamool supporters.
Mr. Salim claimed that Trinamool cadres had come up with a new strategy — attacking Left party offices with arms and leaving the arms behind. The same arms were being shown to the police as a means of justifying the attack, Mr. Salim alleged. “Some television channels were complicit in this.”
“Initially we had thought that these attacks were isolated incidents, but it is emerging that these are pre-planned to overthrow the democratic process and take away the democratic rights that the people of the State have exercised for the last three decades,” the CPI(M) leader said.
