LF, Congress threaten to skip Mamata's swearing-in, BJP to observe black day

Angry over alleged attacks on their activists by the ruling Trinamool Congress after the assembly polls, West Bengal's opposition Left Front, Congress and the BJP on Monday threatened to boycott the swearing-in ceremony of the Mamata Banerjee government, scheduled for May 27.

The LF and the Congress submitted a joint memorandum to Governor Keshri Nath Tripathi,seeking his intervention to stop post-poll violence.

Replying to reporters' queries, state Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said: "We may not attend (the swearing in ceremony)".

Left Front-spearhead CPI-M state secretary Surjya Kanta Mishra concurred. "Looking at the condition of the people (who are being terrorised) we are not mentally preparedA to attend the ceremony and the festivity that surrounds it," he said.

The BJP also knocked on the doors of Tripathi demanding immediate steps to stop post-poll trouble.

BJP state president Dilip Ghosh, who led a protest demonstration in south Kolkata's Hazra, warned the Trinamool that if the attacks on its activists did not cease, he will request the central government to not send any guests to attend the swearing-in ceremony.

"We will observe May 27 as a black day," he said.

Ghosh also warned that his party would not allow the ceremony slated for May 27 at the city's arterial Indira Gandhi Sarani (formerly Red Road) to take place.

"We will blockade Kolkata and Red Road will be occupied on the 27th," he said.

--IANS

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