TMC worker injured in West Bengal panchayat poll violence, dies today

A 61-year-old Trinamool Congress worker, who was injured in a political clash at Bhangar in West Bengal's South 24 Parganas district on the eve of the July 8 panchayat polls, died on Saturday, an official said.

The TMC pointed an accusing finger at the Indian Secular Front (ISF) for the murder, but the opposition party rejected the allegation.

Seikh Moslem was seriously injured in an attack with rods at Bhangar on July 7 night when he was passing a forested area, hours before the panchayat elections were to start. He succumbed in a private hospital in Kolkata, the official said.

TMC MLA from Canning Purba, Saukat Molla, who is entrusted with overseeing party activity in Bhangar, alleged that Moslem was attacked without any provocation by ISF activists who have unleashed a reign of terror in the area.

Bhangar is a strong-hold area of the ISF and the party's lone MLA is also from that constituency.

ISF legislator Nawsad Siddique denied involvement of his party workers in any violence and demanded that a high-level impartial probe be conducted to "unravel the truth behind such deaths."

Siddique claimed that it is the TMC goons who had attacked and killed several ISF workers in the recent past.

With Moslem's death, the number of people killed in panchayat poll-related violence since the election date was announced on June 8 rose to 39, police sources said. A majority of those who lost their lives were affiliated with the TMC.

BJP state president Sukanta Majumdar alleged that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has failed to curb this culture of political violence leading to the loss of so many lives.

"Every death is unfortunate and tragic. This should not have happened... Why should panchayat polls be synonymous with bullets and bombs, with violence, with loss of lives in West Bengal only?"

Meanwhile, one person was stabbed to death at Canning in South 24 Parganas district on Friday night.

The TMC claimed he was a party supporter and accused the ISF of being involved in the killing.

Police sources, however, could not confirm whether it was a political murder.