Bengal Panchayat Polls: Nomination withdrawal deadline today, Opp says candidates facing threats

“The only fault of these candidates is that they wanted to contest in the election. Their family members are being beaten up regularly by TMC workers. Houses of some of them are being vandalised. The police are not coming to their aid. I have updated the Governor about their condition and sought his intervention in this regard,” said state BJP chief Sukanta Majumdar after meeting the Governor.

“The way the TMC is trying to destroy the democratic process is unprecedented and shameful,” he added.

In Cooch Behar, where the nomination process was largely peaceful, the BJP has alleged that their candidates were being forced to withdraw from the election as TMC workers were going door-to-door to collect their nomination papers. The party also claimed that close to 105 BJP candidates left their homes and took refuge at the party’s Cooch Behar office.

“We have housed our candidates in a building with some of them staying there since filing their nominations,” said a BJP leader, adding that such incidents are happening especially in Dinhata-2 block, Natabari and Cooch Behar South Assembly constituencies.

In Deganga area of North 24 Parganas district, All India Forward Bloc (AIFB) candidates alleged that they were threatened to withdraw their nominations at “gunpoint” on Sunday night.
Pratima Kayal, a Left Front candidate for Shalap Gram Panchayat in Howrah district, said she was keeping the doors of her house locked after her shop also was attacked.

“My shop and my house have been attacked. I have not opened my shop for the last few days. My son is a lawyer. On his advice, I installed CCTV at home and lodged a complaint with the police but they did not take any step,” said Purvi Chakraborty, another Left Front candidate from the same area.

The CPI(M) also alleged that their candidates were being threatened by TMC workers at Chapra in Nadia district. “TMC hooligans are visiting our candidates’ homes and threatening them with firearms. At one place, residents resisted the TMC goons and women came out with bamboo sticks and brooms to fight them,” a CPI (M) leader said.

The TMC rejected all the allegations and dubbed it a “well-crafted drama”.