Fresh violence in West Bengal panchayat polls: Two dead, 12 injured

Twelve people have been injured in fresh clashes in the West Bengal panchayat polls where two people have already been killed. The clashes were reported from Burdwan between CPM and TMC workers. This is the same province in which the husband of a CPM candidate was killed while on his way to cast his vote. Reports from the area said that several crude bombs had been hurled at him. Villagers managed to catch one of the attackers who was then reportedly beaten to death. [caption id=“attachment_955685” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image: Reuters[/caption] A report from east Midnapore district quoting police sources, said that that a bomb was hurled at booth no 29/1 at Nandigram after a clash between ruling Trinamool Congress and Congress workers. A Congress worker got head injuries when a clash broke out there. At booth nos 145 and 146 in Mahisadal, there was a scuffle between TMC and CPI(M) supporters. Some booths were also jammed at Moyna after which the police intervened. At Patashpur, a house of a CPI(M)candidate’s agent was ransacked last night. Singur and Nandigram, known for the intense protests against farmland acquisition that caused the ouster of the long entrenched Left Front government and propelled Mamata Banerjee to the chief minister’s chair, went to the polls in the second phase of West Bengal panchayat polls today. While 95,25,320 voters are eligible to choose their representatives in the three districts covering 10,637 gram panchayats, 2047 panchayat samities and 185 zilla parishad seats, all eyes will be on Singur in Hooghly and East Midnapore’s Nandigram — which gained national and international spotlight during the last lap of the Left Front’s rule. With inputs from PTI