Bricks fly in Trinamul feud

OUR CORRESPONDENT

Sain after he lodged the complaint. Picture by  Krishna Das Burdwan, June 9: A Trinamul block president in Burdwan has lodged a police complaint alleging that some party activists who had filed nominations for the rural polls against the official candidate hurled bricks at his house. Sailendranath Sain, the block president of Raina-I, also said in the complaint filed last night that the officer in charge of the local police station, Rakesh Singh, did not take any action. Sain later lodged the complaint with the Burdwan superintendent of police. The Trinamul leader said that around 9am yesterday, about a dozen party workers, who had filed nominations in the gram panchayats and the panchayat samitis in Raina, came to his house and hurled abuses at him, demanding that they be given the party symbol to contest the polls. "They hurled bricks. I opened a window on the first floor and spoke to them. They demanded that I allow them to contest under the party symbol," Sain said. Sain's attempts to explain to the agitators that he did not have the authority to give them the tickets failed, the leader said. The official candidate in a district is chosen by a party's district secretary. After the election commission conducts a scrutiny, the party symbol is usually given to the official candidate. The others can either withdraw or contest as Independents. Sain said his wife was injured when a brick hit her in the arm. The leader said he informed the police, who took around 30 minutes to come. "Seeing the force, the protesters fled, but not before threatening me with dire consequences." Sain added that "strangely, the team of four policemen that arrived "did not take any action against the Trinamul activists and allowed them leave". "I submitted the complaint to the SP. I named three block leaders who led the Trinamul workers," Sain said. S.M.H. Meerza, the police superintendent, said: "I have received the complaint. I will call up the officer in charge of Raina police station and question him." The OC, Rakesh Singh, declined comment. Asked about factionalism in Trinamul before the rural polls, the party's Burdwan observer, Aloke Das, said: "I know what happened in Raina. I will meet Sailendranath Sain and hear his version. An inquiry will be ordered." Candidate demand About 200 Trinamul workers today went to the Singur house of party MLA Rabindranath Bhattacharya and demanded that the official candidate for one of the three zilla parishad seats be replaced with Manik Das, who took part in the Singur anti-land acquisition movement. Talks with Barla Trinamul leaders in the Dooars have said they had held successful talks with John Barla on a pre-poll alliance for zilla parishad seats, confounding the Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad with which the ruling party entered into a tie-up recently. On June 4, leaders of Trinamul and the Parishad, which is staunchly opposed to Barla, announced they would share seats in the gram panchayats and panchayat samitis.