As West Bengal continues to witness widespread violence ahead of the panchayat elections, a Trinamool Congress candidate for the election was beaten to death in Malda district, with the party pointing accusing fingers at the Congress.
TMC candidate Mustafa Sheikh was on his way home in the afternoon when he was attacked by unidentified miscreants in the Sujapur area and beat him up, police said, as per PTI. He was later taken Vto a hospital where he was declared dead. "We are looking into the case. The body was sent for post-mortem examination," a police official said.
According to state minister Sabina Yeasmin, former TMC activists who had joined the Congress after being denied tickets, were behind the attack on Sheikh. "Out of vengeance, they have killed our official candidate. We have asked the police to take action," she told reporters in Malda. The TMC activists, demanding the arrest of the culprits, organised a sit-in in the area.
The district Congress leadership denied the allegations. "The allegation against us is baseless. The killing is due to infighting within the TMC. It has nothing to do with us," a Congress leader said. Malda, a minority-dominated district, is considered a stronghold of the Congress.
Widespread violence over the filing of nominations for the July 8 three-tier panchayat polls has left at least six people dead and several injured in various parts of the state.
The semi-rural area of Bhangore in South 24 Parganas district, was also the scene of political clashes earlier between Indian Secular Front (ISF) a party floated by a Muslim cleric and the ruling TMC. West Bengal Governor CV Anand Bose visited the violence affected area of Canning, South 24 Parganas during the nomination process.
Opposition parties have been alleging that the ruling Trinamool Congress supporters resorted to violence to prevent their candidates from filing nomination papers. The state however claimed before the court that till Wednesday, more opposition candidates filed nominations than those of the ruling party.
The Calcutta High Court on Thursday directed the State Election Commission to requisition and deploy central forces across West Bengal for the July 8 panchayat elections in the state, in which more than five crore voters are expected to exercise their franchise to elect nearly 74,000 candidates in zilla parishads, panchayat samitis and gram panchayats.
