Bengal battle: As poll draws near, more blood could spill

KOLKATA: Gitali Adak, a victim of the recent Netai carnage in West Midnapore died at a city hospital on Friday reigniting the blame game in political circles.
There was news of yet another political killing — this time in Burdwan’s Ketugram that’s not a Maoist-dominated district unlike West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia. Sukur Ali of Ketugram died in a clash.His body lay in a pool of blood for hours because the police failed to reach the area quickly.
The bloodbath has taken a heavy toll. CPM state secretary Biman Bose says 326 of his party workers have died since the 2009 Lok Sabha polls and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee puts the number of her supporters killed at 250.
The run-up to the battle for ballots has never been so violent as it is now in south Bengal where CPM and Trinamool are neck-and-neck and a 2% swing from the 2009 Lok Sabha votes can tilt the balance.
"Hardly a district remains unscarred," said governor M K Narayanan after the Netai killings. To stress that violence had spread beyond Jangalmahal, he named the flashpoints - Nanoor in Birbhum, Sashan in North 24-Parganas, Mangalkote and Ketugram in Burdwan, Jhalda in Purulia, Khanakul in Hooghly - districts within 150 km from Kolkata.
The battlelines are drawn even in remote villages bristling with pistols, guns and bombs. CPM men who recently took part in a failed armed offensive at Khejuri in East Midnapore to recapture Nandigram have lost their homes. Khejuri still flies the Trinamool flag.
The scene is similar at Lalgarh and Jhargram where the Maoist-led People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCPA) had driven out the CPM cadres a year ago. The Naxalite inroads helped the Trinamool ride into CPM strongholds in West Midnapore where it had a nominal presence earlier.
Trouble erupted again when CPM started reclaiming territory in these villages after the Central paramilitary forces flushed out the Maoists from large parts of Jangalmahal.
Things are likely to worsen as assembly polls draw near. Despite the rapid spread of violence, mainstream parties have remained in denial on the free use of arms. But the recent Netai incident has left the Buddhadeb government embarrassed.
The police seized 25 CPM flags, four CPM leaflets and guns after the violence. These seizures have strengthened the Opposition complaints against the CPM’s "harmad" army.
Leader of the Opposition in the assembly, Partha Chatterjee of Trinamool, sees no other solution than an early election to the bloodbath. "The state government has failed on all fronts. It can’t protect lives and property of citizens. I met the chief election commissioner the other day and urged him to bring forward the election."
On Friday, a team of pro-change intellectuals led by theatre personality Shaonli Mitra and Bratya Basu left for Delhi to meet the President, PM and the Union home minister. Among other things, they’ll demand early polls.
The CPM has of late begun appealing to the Opposition to settle for peace. On Friday, CPM state secretariat member Gautam Deb texted Mamata Banerjee urging her to sit for peace talks. "I believe that this problem can’t be sorted out at the administrative level. I rang the Trinamool chief yesterday (Thursday) but she didn’t take my call.
“Later, I sent her a message urging the heads of parties - Mamata Banerjee, Pranab Mukherjee and Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee — to sit for talks and put an end to this violence," he said. The Opposition dismissed Deb’s proposal as a "cheap stunt".