Oppn misleading people with stories of violence: Partha

Kolkata: Trinamool Congress secretary general Partha Chatterjee on Wednesday alleged that the Opposition is misleading the people over the incidents of violence that are taking place over the filing of nomination in different areas.

Reacting sharply to the allegations that the ruling party is not allowing the Opposition to file nominations, made by some intellectuals including Bibhas Chakraborty and Pratul Mukhopadhyay who had backed Trinamool Congress during the Singur and Nandigram movements, Chatterjee said the BJP is misleading people and "it is most unfortunate that the intellectuals are giving their reaction without going into the details."

He wondered how the intellectuals could ignore the processions with arms by CPI-M in Birbhum and the infighting in BJP in Purulia, leading to the death of one of their supporters. "Some vernacular television channels are showing the same incident throughout the day and on the basis of that, the people are forming their opinion," he said, adding "they should have gotten in touch with us to know the actual situation."

He said BJP has filed nomination in 70 percent seats and this would not have been possible, had the candidates been prevented from filing nominations. He reiterated that the Opposition parties do not have the organisational strength to field candidates in all the seats.

Around 58,000 candidates will be required to field candidates in Gram Panchayat, Panchayat Samity and Zilla Parishad seats. Partha said Trinamool Congress had fielded 15,000 to 20,000 candidates in the three-tier Panchayat election during the Left regime.

"The candidates were not allowed to file nomination and the Left Front used to win over 6,000 seats uncontested. But in those days, the television channels were not there and so, the violence was not highlighted. The people should understand the ground reality and know the details before making any comment in public," the Trinamool secretary general said.

The statistics available so far reveal that the Opposition has collectively filed candidates in 68,563 seats. Of these, BJP has fielded 27,789 candidates in Gram Panchayat and 5,952 and 766 candidates in Panchayat Samity and Zilla Parishad respectively.

Similarly, Left Front has fielded 19,714, 4,038 and 1,042 candidates in Gram Panchayat, Panchayat Samity and Zilla Parishad seats respectively. Congress has fielded 7,239, 1,646 and 377 candidates in Gram Panchayat, Panchayat Samity and Zilla Parishad respectively.

Trinamool Congress has already bagged the Zilla Parishad in Birbhum, where out of 42 seats, the party has fielded 41 candidates, with BJP fielding only one candidate.