Bose, Buddha finger at rival

OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee arrives for the rally Calcutta, June 9: CPM state secretary Biman Bose today said "Trinamul-backed goons" had murdered former CPM MLA Dilip Sarkar in Burnpur. "Trinamul-backed goons are behind the murder of our former MLA from Barabani (near Asansol). This was pre-planned," Bose told journalists at Alimuddin Street. The Left Front chairman's comments today came amid oft-repeated complaints by the Opposition about Trinamul-backed terror in the districts in the run-up to the panchayat elections. Bose today said: "The murder points to the prevailing lawlessness across Bengal. Where has the slogan "badla noy, badal chai (we don't want revenge but change) that Trinamul chanted before coming to power gone?" "What is happening today in Bengal is nothing but political vendetta," he added. At Bongaon in North 24-Parganas, former chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee also pointed to Trinamul for the Burnpur murder without naming the party, saying it was a strategy "to make us nervous before the panchayat polls". "This (Sarkar's murder) is part of their (the Trinamul Congress's) strategy to make us nervous before the panchayat elections. They are torturing our men, killing them. Dilip Sarkar was murdered. They are doing this so that our workers feel scared before the polls," Bhattacharjee told a 10,000-strong crowd at a Left Front rally. The former chief minister asked the gathering to stand up to Trinamul terror, saying that would yield results as had happened in the Howrah Lok Sabha bypoll. "Trinamul is creating anarchy and terror. But we must realise that our men will have to stand up to that. Don't shy away from it, else the ruling party will become more brutal. Look at Howrah. We resisted in several places in the constituency. That's why our vote percentage had increased though we lost," said Bhattacharjee. Although the CPM was defeated by Trinamul in Howrah by 26,965 votes, the ruling party's vote share came down from 37,392 in 2009, much to the encouragement of the CPM. Trinamul all-India general secretary Mukul Roy refuted the allegation and said: "The CPM has become so redundant in the rural belt these days that it cannot get people to stand for the rural polls as its nominees with party symbol". http://www.telegraphindia.com/1130610/jsp/bengal/story_16990877.jsp#.UbX3GueBlA0