Balurghat: Ahead of civic polls, houses of TMC workers attacked; party flags & posters damaged

balurghat: Ahead of civic body polls, tension prevailed in ward no 8 under Balurghat civic body after a group of unidentified goons attacked the houses of some Trinamool Congress (TMC) party workers and supporters on Saturday.

The goons reportedly damaged the TMC flags along with the posters, banners and flexes of the party candidate Surajit Saha, who is contesting from the ward on TMC ticket. Street lights of the area were broken by the miscreants so that neither of them could be identified. Receiving the information from the locals on his mobile phone, Saha immediately reached the spot at night and talked to the residents. A large number of police personnel from Balurghat police station rushed to the spot at night for investigation. Saha and police visited the spot again on Sunday morning in order to stand by the locals.

Speaking to the media persons, Saha said: "Around 1 am, a group of some unidentified miscreants wearing masks attacked the houses of our party workers and supporters by throwing bricks and stones at their houses. Following their attack, the windowpanes were broken. The goons had torn our party flexes, banners, posters, flags and festoons in huge numbers in order to terrorise the locals before the upcoming civic polls."According to him, the police reached the spot within 15 minutes after they were being informed and initiated a probe. "We appealed to the law enforcers to investigate the incident without any delay so that the goons can be identified as early as possible and caught accordingly. We are suspecting the opposition parties including the BJP and the Left Front were behind the crime," he said.

Saha said the oppositions were frustrated anticipating defeat in the upcoming polls. "The BJP and the LF-backed miscreants committed the crime to terrorise the locals," he claimed.

"We are receiving a huge positive response from the voters during campaigning. It indicates our easy victory in the polls. The oppositions are now hopeless seeing the public support behind us and finding no other option, they are now involved in terrorising the voters. We never witnessed such an incident before polls in Balurghat," added Saha.