CPM picks up pieces with a rally

“Our supporters are being murdered everyday. In two months,over 30 of our supporters have been murdered,our party offices ransacked and set on fire,” said Dipak Sarkar,CPM district committee secretary of West Midnapore.

“ We have decided to combat the Maoist terror politically,hence organised this rally. We are trying to reorganise ourselves in the area,” he added.

The party is trying to regain its lost base in Lalgarh and surrounding areas,even as local committee and zonal committee offices have remained closed for nearly a year.

Most of the local leaders have also fled the areas,and the CPM is planning to bring them back.

Interestingly,Maoists also took out parallel rallies in Lalgarh and surrounding areas of Dharampur,Baita,Madhupur and Belpaharai.

They raised anti-government slogans and called for a stop to the joint operations by state and central security forces in the area.

“The CPM gathered unwilling villagers by force and organised a small rally. We,too,organised mass rallies in Lalgarh and surrounding areas,” said Maoist leader Kishenji.

In another development,a tiffin box was spotted in a bush today morning at Baita in Lalgarh.

Security forces earlier considered it to be a mine,but later it was found to be a decoy.

Roads were also dug out in Baita,Belpaharai and other areas,allegedly by Maoists,to thwart the movement of security forces stationed in the area.

CPM,Trinamool lock horns over civic polls in Siliguri

Elections for 47 seats of the municipal corporation in Siliguri,Darjeeling,ended peacefully with 80 per cent of polling registered on Sunday. The results will be declared on September 15. The election has emerged as a prestige fight between the Left Front,which held the previous board,and the Trinamool -Congress alliance,whose political graph in West Bengal is on the rise.

For the Trinamool-Congress combine,a favourable result would give it the much sought-after foothold in this part of Bengal where the Marxists had held sway for the last 35 years. Both the groups brought their star campaigners for the elections. For the Marxists,while CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee along with wife Meera Bhattacharjee addressed an election rally,Urban Development Minister Ashok Bhattacharya led the campaign,addressing scores of rallies.

The campaigners for the Congress-Trinamool alliance included Congress MP Deepa Dasmunshi,Trinmool MPs Subhendu Adhikary,Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Partha Chatterjee,to name a few. Re-poll will be held at Pateswari Prathamik Vidyalaya booth number two of ward number 47 as the electronic voting machine was found defective. The poll process was also delayed at nearly ten other booths due to EVM snag.