Expressing his anger at the large-scale violence in the second phase of panchayat polls, Basu had said on Thursday that the Front should be built afresh. Bose, however, did not agree with the former chief minister’s view that the ongoing polls witnessed maximum violence since the formation of the Left Front in 1977. “Look at the newspaper clippings of the 1988 panchayat polls or the reports of the 2003 rural elections,” Bose told reporters in a press conference held at CPM state headquarters at Alimuddin Street today. The clashes between the Front partners, according to him, were “nothing new”. He pointed out that such incidents occur but they are resolved with time. “This is not the first time that the partners of the Front have clashed with each other,” Bose said.
On Friday morning, he rang up Forward Bloc state secretary Ashok Ghosh, RSP state secretary Debabrata Bandopadhyay and Manjukumar Majumdar of the CPI.
“As a major partner, the CPM has a greater responsibility. I have asked my party leaders in South 24 Parganas to defuse the tension immediately,” said Bose. “All the Front leaders should avoid making provocative statements,” he said.
The third phase of polling is scheduled to be held on May 18. Bose said, “We should be cautious that a similar situation is not created in North Bengal on the poll day.”In South Dinajpur, the CPM and the RSP are at loggerheads with two ministers from both the sides, Biswanath Chowdhury and Narayan Biswas, trying to capture the rural power centres.