Bengal CPM cadres bomb ally Minister’s house

Gouri Naskar, a relative of the minister, sustained 90 per cent burns and was shifted to SSKM hospital in Kolkata where doctors said she was critical. Her husband, Uday Naskar, who is the Minister’s nephew, also sustained burn injuries.

The incident triggered off another bout of bitter squabbling between the Left partners prompting CPM patriarch Jyoti Basu to comment: “The time has come to rebuild the Left Front anew. Fissures seem to have run deep.” Only yesterday, three RSP supporters — the party has only 23 MLAs in a House of 294 — were killed allegedly by armed CPM cadres. A CPM activist was also killed.

Basanti, in South 24-Parganas, where the Minister’s house was attacked, has been a traditional stronghold of the RSP with the CPM playing second fiddle. In fact, the political power equation here is peculiar: the RSP occupies the main political space, the CPM plays the virtual Opposition with neither the Trinamool nor the Congress having any base. As in previous panchayat polls, this year too, the two parties failed to come to any understanding and both fielded candidates against each other.

Basanti, in a sense therefore, symbolizes the Left’s disunity in these polls. According to one estimate, of the 41,000 Gram Panchayat seats across the state, the CPM unilaterally fielded candidates in as many as 36,903 seats. It left barely 4,500 to be shared between eight other LF constituents which the LF partners refused to agree on. As a result, the Forward Bloc and RSP both fielded candidates in about 5000 seats where the CPM put up candidates. Basanti happened to be one such area.

In fact, the build-up to the poll was fraught with tension as RSP’s Kshiti Goswami and state PWD Minister urged party supporters to adopt the “Nandigram model of opposition” to the CPM. “Just as in Nandigram, all anti-CPM forces should unite to fight the CPM,” was his constant refrain in election rallies.

Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, accused of letting the administration turn the other way while such violence rocked the area, today initiated a fresh move to rein in the warring partners. He formed a committee, comprising Rezzak Mollah, the CPM Minister for Land Reforms; Kanti Ganguly, also from CPM and Minister for Sunderban Affairs and Subash Naskar, the target of today’s attack, and asked them to defuse the crisis.

Ironically, Naskar and Ganguly were busy at a peace-meeting at Sonakhali this afternoon when Naskar’s supporters came rushing to inform him that his house had been attacked by an armed group of CPM cadres and set ablaze. Naskar rushed to his house to find it in flames.

Locals alleged that several men on motorcycles arrived at Charvidya village, about 85 km from Kolkata, and hurled bombs at Naskar’s house. The house soon caught fire. CPM zonal committee leader Sudarshan Samal, however, denied these charges and claimed that bombs stored in the house had gone off.

The SP rushed to the spot with a team of the Rapid Action Force and later said that no bomb remnants could be traced at the house. The case will be investigated by the CID and the state forensic department, he said. Home Secretary Ashok Mohan Chakraborty said the Chief Minister “personally monitored the situation” and several decisions had been taken to bring down the temperature in the disturbed area.