It was also the first instance when a Front partner had accused the state police for working in favour of the CPM.

RSP leader and State Public Works Minister Kshiti Goswami told reporters, “The police was working for the ruling party.”

Asked about the role of the Central forces in Basanti in South 24 Parganas, where four people have been allegedly killed in clashes between the CPM and RSP cadres, Goswami said, “Not everybody is Alok Raj”, referring to the Deputy Inspector General of the CRPF.

Forward Bloc state secretary Ashok Ghosh said Bhattacharjee could have easily prevented the violence. “Had the Chief Minister been alert, these incidents could have been averted,” Ghosh told reporters, referring to the clashes at Basanti and Uluberia in Howrah district.

Debabrata Bandopadhyay, RSP’s state secretary, also accused the administration of playing the role of a “silent spectator”. “The administration should have played a much more active role to prevent the clashes,” he said.

Sporadic clashes between CPM and RSP supporters are being reported since Tuesday night and the four people - a CPM cadre and three RSP activists — died in a clash Wednesday. No deaths have been reported in the Uluberia clashes.

When a local television channel began broadcasting the clashes on Wednesday morning, Bloc’s Ashok Ghosh contacted the RSP state secretary and discussed the role of CPM cadres in the violence.

“It is unfortunate that the violence erupted between two partners,” Ghosh told reporters. The chief minister called him on Tuesday to discuss the Uluberia clashes. According to Ghosh, he told Bhattacharjee that the violence could have stopped if the chief minister had wished to do so.”