Mamata demand Art 356 in Bengal

CALCUTTA, May 28: In the lastest development, the Trinamool Congress tonight decided to `suspend' its support to the Vajpayee government til...

CALCUTTA, May 28: In the lastest development, the Trinamool Congress tonight decided to `suspend’ its support to the Vajpayee government till further notice. According party chief whip in Lok Sabha Ajit Kumar Panja, the Trinamool Congress parliamentary party would also boycott Parliament till further notice.

Panja said, the party took the decision unanimously due to Centre’s failure to give protection to the life and property of the people in West Bengal and check violence in today’s panchayat poll. “Repeated requests and appeals to the Union Home Ministry were of no avail.” Another reason, he said, was that Railway Minister Nitish Kumar had failed to contradict a report in a Bengali daily that the important rail projects in the state, mentioned in the `Bengal package’ submitted to the Prime Minister by Mamata Banerjee, had not been incorporated in the Railway budget to be placed in the Lower House tomorrow.

Asked specifically if the Trinamool Congress had withdrawn support to the BJP-led government,Panja replied, “No, we have suspended support to the Central government and our MPs will not attend the Lok Sabha till further notice.”

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Earlier in the day, stray incidents of violence, booth-capturing and snatching of ballot papers marked today’s electoral battle for rural Bengal, leading TMC chief Mamata Banerjee to demand imposition of Article 356 in the State. Over 75 pc of the rural electorate voted for 50,400 Gram Panchayat, 8,607 Panchayat Samiti and 713 Zilla Parishad seats.

Incidents of violence and bomb blasts left nine dead and at least 30 hurt, even as police had to resort to firing in the air at three places to quell clashes among CPM, Congress and Trinamool Congress, state Home (Police) Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee said. The BJP, which fought the Panchayat polls in alliance with the Trinamool Congress, does not, however, want imposition of President’s rule. The Marxists were “already a dying force and would be wiped out by the people”, BJP general secretary Rahul Sinha said. The partysent fax messages to Union Home Minister L K Advani complaining about “rigging of the polls by the CPM”. It has also demanded repolling in 115 booths all over the State. Close lieutenant of Mamata Banerjee and TC MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay while addressing a news conference here, said, “So far we have not demanded imposition of Article 356 in West Bengal but time has now come to demand such promulgation to restore law and order in the State.”

However, the CPM dismissed the demand for President’s rule, laying the blame for much of the violence on the Trinamool Congress. CPM central committee member Anil Biswas described the demand as “old hat”. “The people and the press were witness to the peaceful poll today, despite some incidents”, he remarked.