Click to play videoKolkata: The panchayat polls of West Bengal are being dubbed the bloodiest polls in the state’s history. The third and the last phase of the local body polls has taken more than 15 lives.
Marred by bomb attacks and clashes between the ruling CPM and Congress and the Trinamool Congress, of the seven districts that went to polls on Sunday, Murshidabad was the worst hit, with 14 casualties being reported from the area alone.
The CPM was not behind in denouncing Trinamool Congress.
“The Trinamool Congress workers have, in fact, captured booths,” announced CPM State Secretary, Biman Bose.
The ruling CPM has also been repeatedly charged with allegations of booth capturing.
At least eight people were also killed in the second phase of polling on Wednesday, where even Left Front allies clashed at places. In South-24 Parganas, a relative of the state minister from the RSP quota Subhash Naskar, was killed in a bomb attack.
In the first phase of polling, CPM MP Lakshman Seth was accused of pressurising a CRPF DIG on poll duty.
"How can the police and local administration be subservient to the political causes of the ruling CPM?” demanded West Bengal Congress Committee Spokesperson, Manas Bhuinya.
Even as bitter rivals Congress and CPM engage in a war of words in the seven districts, in the final phase of the panchayat polls, the death toll keeps rising from Murshidabad and Birbhum as these elections have become the bloodiest in the history of panchayat polls in the state.
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