Bengal Oppn leaders wary of fresh violence
West Bengal’s Opposition leaders remained wary that there may be a repeat of the violence, witnessed through the nomination period for the panchayat polls, after the Calcutta high court ordered an extension of the deadline to file papers.
“We are apprehensive of further violence on the new date of the nomination. Violence may be unleashed both on the day of nomination as well as on the days preceding it to intimidate opposition candidates,” said BJP state president Dilip Ghosh.
“We have about 10,000 nominations ready for filing on the additional day. We’ll try our best, but are not sure how many of the candidates will ultimately manage to brave the ruling party’s muscle,” Ghosh said.
Sujan Chakraborty, leader of the Left legislative party in the assembly, echoed Ghosh’s views. “The government vehemently opposed in the court our appeal for central paramilitary forces since they have the plan of using the police to fulfil its purpose. We anticipate violence on the day of
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nomination and even on the days leading to it,” Chakraborty said.
Bengal Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said the court’s order of extending the deadline for filing nominations did not guarantee an end to violence. “Unfortunately, the order does not mean that the ruling party will not indulge in violence once again to stop opposition candidates. There will be another day of nomination and another day of violence the likes of which we have seen between April 2 and April 9,” he said.
The leaders also said intimidation would continue during the period of withdrawal of nomination. It is due to this fear that all the Opposition , demanded before the court that online submission of nomination papers be allowed. The court rejected this plea.
Earlier, the state election commission (SEC) ruled that nominations could be submitted to the sub-divisional offices instead of block development offices.