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TMC leaders meet Home Secretary, DGP; urge action

They also interacted with Director General of Police (DGP) GMP Reddy during a half-an-hour meeting and urged him to take action in this regard.

Earlier, Bakshi and Roy had come to Nabanna separately and even paid a visit to De where they held talks.

It was learnt that the leaders had told De that the party supremo had expressed deep concern over the murder of party workers before the elections. They urged the state Home Secretary to take all steps to ensure a fair and peaceful election. Election will be held in six phases and will start on April 4 and end on May 5. The results will be announced on May 19. Central Forces will be deployed to ensure peaceful election.

On Friday, Roy had been to the Election Commission and met the CEO and told him that party workers had been killed by the Opposition parties before the polls.On Thursday night, a party leader was murdered by members of the Opposition parties at Ketugram in Burdwan. Roy told Sunil Gupta, Chief Election Officer, that the Commission will be held responsible if more party workers get killed by the Opposition parties.

Also, in South 24 Parganas, a party leader was murdered on Wednesday. Roy told Gupta that six party workers had been murdered since the notice to hold polls in West Bengal was announced. He also said that the next time any party worker or leader gets killed, they would come with his dead body to the Commission as a mark of protest.

Officials of the Election Commission said that the District Magistrates of South 24 Parganas and Burdwan had been asked to give a detailed report on the incidents in which two Trinamool Congress leaders were killed.

The Election Commission on Saturday wrote a letter to the State Chief Secretary Basudeb Bandopadhyay and said that law and order was not the exclusive prerogative of the Election Commission and the state government was equally responsible in case of any incident. The Commission also asked Bandopadhyay to look into the matter.

It may be recalled that Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee during her political meetings in Jangalmahal had said that the Opposition was trying to incite violence. “It is the duty of the Election Commission to ensure that election is held peacefully. The Election Commission will have to take up the matter seriously,” she added.

Banerjee said that through speeches, Left Front leaders were trying to propagate violence. She urged her party workers to maintain cool and not to get provoked by their speeches. She also told the Opposition not to take the sobriety of Trinamool Congress for granted. “We stand on a rock-solid foundation and any attempt to destabilise the state will not be tolerated.”

Party MP Sudip Bandopadhyay on Saturday said that CPI(M) talking about free and fair election was a joke. He said that the Opposition was trying to take recourse in violence because they cannot stand up to the TMC politically. He urged the Opposition leaders not to spread canard and ensure that election was held peacefully. 

“It is really wonderful the way party workers and leaders have maintained cool at a time when six party workers have been murdered in the past couple of weeks,” he maintained.
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