CPI(M) Candidates Disallowed from Speaking at Nandigram Roadshow

Nandigram/Kolkata, March 31: “The nearer the election approaches the more ferocious our opponents become,” said Left Front Chairman Biman Basu on Tuesday in Nandigram. According to Basu it was because of the looming uncertainty as the Sanyukta Morcha (United Front) was giving a tough fight in the assembly constituency and in others in Purba Medinipur. Basu was campaigning for Meenakshi Mukherjee who will be contesting from the constituency.

Mukherjee was disallowed from speaking at her roadshow in Hazra Kata village, which featured her and Basu. Apparently two to three miscreants gave diktats to the effect that there would not be a call for votes in the village.

However, wherever the roadshow went people flocked to see the CPI(M) candidate along with Basu. The miscreants used loud music to interrupt her roadshow at various places in Nandigram onTuesday. Hundreds of DYFI activists joined the roadshow, however.

A second roadshow at Narayngarh for former DYFI general secretary Tapas Sinha also drew huge crowds with the rally carrying on uninterrupted.

Addressing the incidents in Kolkata on Wednesday, CPI(M) Politburo member and Sanyukta Morcha candidate Mohammed Salim said that the incidents at Nandigram were because the Trinamool Congress (TMC) was fighting former party member Suvendu Adhikari and that it was “a hooligan vis a vis the controller of hooligans. One of her hooligans has gone astray and is wrecking havoc in her party ranks,” Salim said at Muzaffar Ahmad Bhawan. “Meenakshi is fighting there with deft courage and reflecting the aspirations of the youth of the state,” he said.

In Barjora assembly segment in Bankura, the incumbent MLA, CPI(M)’s Sujit Chakraborty is confident of a victory, saying only “electoral malpractice can defeat me”, he told Newsclick. Barjora was a sponge iron hub but the factories are struggling due to Rangdari Tax and TMC syndicates, he said. “The vote this time will be against all this,” he added.

In Indus and Taldangra constituencies of Bankura Narayan Seal and Manoranjan Patra are CPI(M) heavyweights in the fray for their mass appeal in the face of the BJP’s money power and the TMC’s muscle flexing politics.

Sk. Ibrahim Ali of Panskura Purba is all of 32 and is seeking a re-election on a CPI(M) ticket this time. The highly popular youth leader echoed the words of Barjora MLA Chakraborty. In Haldia, where a rare defection of a CPI(M) MLA occurred in December last year, Monika Kar Paik is hopeful of a win. “We are in the fray to win, and Modi’s Haldia gimmicks have all but been exposed,” she said, exuding confidence.

CPI(M) Paschim Medinipur leader Meghnad Bhuniya said the party candidate from Keshpur, Rameshwar Dolui will have a fair chance of winning if there is fair voting. Thee segment will vote on April 1.