Almost all political parties in Malda are going slow when it comes to the upcoming panchayat elections. The second day of filing of nominations saw little activity in front of block offices, the places where candidates are supposed to file their nominations for the panchayat samity and gram panchayat.

Even the ground floor of the rural development office, the place for filing nominations for the zilla Parishad seats, saw little activity on Tuesday. Party leaders in the district are still in a dilemma on finalizing the list of candidates for different reasons.

The CPI-M and Congress are, meanwhile, brainstorming over seat distribution among them, and the BJP is yet to get a green signal from the party head office in the state. The ruling Trinamul Congress is also waiting for the party signal to come from Kolkata for the candidates, it is learnt.

However, come on Wednesday, the silence may be broken as the BJP plans to file nominations for the Zilla Parishad seats. “We are waiting for the state leadership to give us a green signal to file the nominations. The Zilla Parishad candidates of the BJP will, however, start filing their nominations from on Wednesday,” Ajay Ganguly, one of the general secretaries of the BJP in Malda said.

On the other hand, TMC district president Moazzem Hossain, said they are about to start proceedings from the sixth of this month. “We are waiting for the nod to arrive here from Kolkata,” he said.

The supposed alliance and seat adjustment between Congress and CPI-M are also to take final shape and the Left Front is going to file the nominations without waiting for the results any longer, because there will be ample time to withdraw the candidatures, party sources said.

“We are now in the process of filing nominations as per the Left decision. We shall have enough time to withdraw them if something comes up later,” district secretary of the CPI-M, Ambar Mitra, said.

Congress is also having thoughts on the issue and party leaders said they wil be working on it from Thursday onwards. “There is a strong chance for a final settlement between the two parties, Congress and CPI-M on Wednesday, the alliance of which got huge success in the last assembly elections,” sources said.

One of the general secretaries of the Congress in Malda, Hemanta Sharma, said, “Nominations for the panchayat samity and gram panchayats are going on at a slow pace. We have time till the ninth of this month. Once things get settled on Wednesday, we will be working in full swing. The list of candidates is already in its final stages.”

Meanwhile, sporadic incidents of clashes have been reported in Malda after the declaration of the poll dates. Miscreants allegedly tried to burn a woman along with her child in Daulatnagar village under the Harishchandrapur police station last night.

The miscreants are said to belong to the woman’s opposition camp. In another incident, a youth was killed last night during a party meeting to decide on the candidates. In the first incident, alleged opposition members tried to set on fire Beauty Bibi, a TMC activist, who had joined the ruling party from the Opposition last year, in her house.

In the other incident, Mijanur Rahaman, 25, was shot on his head during a party meeting where the candidature was to be decided. The police, however, claimed that the case was not related to any party meeting, but that Rahaman was caught in a fight between two miscreants on the road.

Police have arrested three in this connection. Malda Superintendent of Police Arnab Ghosh confirmed that the prime suspect had been held in connection with the killing and that further investigations were underway.