TMC MPs to meet President tomorrow on panchayat poll violence

Trinamool Congress MPs will meet President Ram Nath Kovind tomorrow to apprise him about the violence allegedly unleashed by opposition parties in West Bengal ahead of panchayat polls, a TMC leader said today.

The development comes after the candidates fielded by opposition parties accused the ruling TMC members of stopping them from filing their nomination papers for the elections.

TMC too has accused the BJP of spreading violence and roping in outsiders to foment trouble in the state.

Following the allegations and counter allegations, the Election Commission postponed the date of the panchayat polls tentatively to May 14 from the previously announced May 1, 3, 5.

TMC chief Mamata Banerjee, who is in Delhi to attend the first meeting of a 'national committee' tasked to plan the commemoration of Mahatma Gandhi's 150th birth anniversary next year, asked her MPs to meet the president on this matter.

"We are meeting the president tomorrow. Though the timing has not been fixed yet, we are going to apprise him of the ongoing violence which has been unleashed by opposition," the TMC leader said.

Banerjee would leave for Kolkata tomorrow.

The BJP, the Left Front and the Congress have alleged that the ruling TMC has unleashed terror in parts of the state and prevented opposition candidates from filing nominations.