Kolkata, Nov 27: Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee today demanded that a Central team visit West Bengal after one person was killed and six injured at Khanakul in Hooghly district in the continuing turf war between her party and the CPM.
Banerjee said she had spoken to Union Home Minister P Chidambaram, Union Finance Pranab Mukherjee and Congress president Sonia Gandhi and demanded that a Central team be sent to the state.
“If necessary, the Union home minister should also visit the state,” she told a TV news channel from Delhi.
“Political violence in which over 100 party supporters have been killed is continuing since the Lok Sabha elections. There is no law and order, no administration and no action. The Centre can’t sit idle in this situation and should protect the people,” she said.
Asked when the team was likely to visit the state, Banerjee replied it would be within two to three days. “The Union Home Minister who has gone to Mumbai will decide on it after his return,” she said.
Alleging that the violence was unleashed at the behest of Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, she said a Central team should visit violence-hit areas and give protection to the people.
Trinamool-CPM turf war rocks Lok Sabha
The turf war between the Trinamool Congress and CPM in West Bengal had its echo in the Lok Sabha today with the two parties clashing over fresh violence between their supporters, leading to adjournment of the House for an hour.
Trinamool Congress Chief Whip Sudip Bandopadhyay raised the issue during the Zero Hour and was supported by his party colleagues who were on their feet targeting the Left Front government in the state.
Left members, led by CPM leader Basudeb Acharia, immediately countered them accusing the Trinamool of being hand-in-gloves with Maoists.
Bandopadhyay and his colleagues demanded that a central team be immediately sent to the state to assess the situation and submit its report.
With the charges and counter-charges continuing unabated, Speaker Meira Kumar adjourned the House for an hour.
In the latest clashes in three villages under Khanakul, Arambagh and Purshura police stations in Hooghly district this morning, one person was killed and six others were injured. While the dead was a supporter of Trinamool Congress, the four injured were CPM sympathisers.
Yechury: Central team will prove Maoist-Mamata link
As the Trinamool Congress demanded sending a Central team to West Bengal following intermittent political clashes, CPM leader Sitaram Yechury on Thursday said such an exercise would prove the “nexus” that Mamata Banerjee’s party has with the Naxalites.
Accusing the Trinamool of “protecting, patronising and using” the Maoists to mount attack on CPM workers, he said its “political gameplan” in Bengal was to create anarchy and violence, use it to impose Central rule and hold elections under it “so that they can manipulate the elections”.
–Agencies