Parties blame each other for sporadic violence in N Bengal
The Election Commission received over 100 complaints of violence and intimidation from three Lok Sabha segments, Cooch Behar, Alipurduar and Jalpaiguri.
Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Wednesday will hold a rally at Contai – the political bastion of Suvendu Adhikari and his family – in West Bengal’s East Midnapore district.
Interestingly, none of the Adhikari kins have been invited to the rally even though Suvendu’s father Sisir Adhikari and elder brother Dibyendu Adhikari are sitting TMC MPs.
According to a report by ABP Ananda, Tamluk MP Dibyendu has confirmed that none from his family got a call to attend the rally at their hometown.
Advertisement
Sisir Adhikari represents the Contai constituency in the Parliament and is also TMC’s district secretary in East Midnapore.
Suvendu’s younger brother Soumyendu Adhikari is the chairman of board of administrators in Contai Municipality. He had won the seat as a TMC candidate and continues to serve the Mamata Banerjee-led party.
Reportedly, the posters and banners that have come up in the region for the event don’t mention the Adhikaris.
However, TMC MLA from East Midnapore’s Ramnagar Akhil Giri claimed to have called Sisir Adhikari for the rally. He said that the Adhikari patriarch excused from the programme citing an injury on his leg.
Bringing an end to the long-running speculations looming over his political career, Suvendu – undoubtedly the most heavyweight Adhikari of present time – changed his loyalty and took up the saffron flag from Amit Shah at a mega rally in Midnapore last week.
Suvendu, the former Minister of Transport, Irrigation and Water resource in Mamata Banerjee’s administration, took along a total of more than 40 TMC leaders to the BJP.
Nine MLAs – six from TMC, one from CPIM, one from CPI and one from Congress – joined BJP on Saturday. One sitting and a former TMC MP also defected to the Hindutva camp.
“I am being called a traitor by those who themselves (TMC) are traitors. Had the BJP not been there, TMC would have never come into existence. In the next assembly polls, BJP will win Bengal and TMC will be defeated,” he said.
Advertisement
