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CPI-M-Trinamul clashes claim 20 lives

Mohammad Javed R in Calcutta

The killing spree continues in West Bengal. Ever since the murder of Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Gurupada Bagchi in south Calcutta on January 23, the clashes between the supporters of the ruling party and the Trinamul Congress have claimed 20 lives.

Only two days after Bagchi's murder, CPI-M activists allegedly gunned down four Trinamul workers in South 24-Parganas. Union Railway Minister and Trinamul Congress leader Mamata Banerjee has told rediff.com that all the four were her party supporters.

Eyewitnesses to this gory incident said that it was the Trinamul workers who had first attacked the CPI-M's Byomkesh Bhagat on Tuesday afternoon. ''After their bullet shots missed the target, they hurled bombs before running away from the spot. The assailants were, then, chased and hacked to death by the infuriated CPI-M supporters,'' said an eyewitness.

The murder of four Trinamul workers, it is believed, was apparently in retaliation to the murder of Bagchi and Subodh Naiya, another CPI-M leader of Lake Town. Curiously though, Naiya too was killed on January 23, allegedly by goons owing allegiance to the Trinamul Congess.

The tension between the two parties has now spread to Midnapore where 15 people, mostly CPI-M workers, have lost their lives in past two days alone.

After the Trinamul Congress lost four of its grassroot workers in South 24-Parganas, its men allegedly went on the rampage in Midnapore gunning down seven CPI-M activists and torching over 150 houses in Madhupur, Bhagwanchak, Majurhati and Basanchak. Of the seven killed, one Indra Narayan Paul was allegedly burnt alive in his house by the Trinamul mob.

According to the locals, the Trinamul supporters were allegedly trying to avenge the killing of Mehrunnesa whom the CPI-M cadres had allegedly killed on January 24.

Imteyaz Ali, a zonal committee member of the CPI-M, said that eight of his colleagues had to be admitted in a nearby health centre in a critical condition. They succumbed to injuries on Wednesday night taking the total toll to 15.

The sporadic clashes between the supporters of the CPI-M and the Trinamul in and around Midnapore are nothing new.

One reason behind this inter-party bloodshed is said to be the meteoric rise of both the Trinamul and the Bharatiya Janata Party in the area. Once considered the Left's fiefdom, the Trinamul-BJP combine has made a considerable dent in Midnapore and its adjoining district Panskura. In the run-up to the last year's parliamentary polls, the clashes between these two parties had claimed over 50 lives.

Though both Left nominees from Midnapore and Panskura had succeeded in retaining their seats, the huge reduction in the victory margins of its candidates has not gone down well with the Marxist leadership.

While Communist Party of India leader Indrajit Gupta's victory margin in Midnapore came down from 279,000 in the 1998 Lok Sabha election to 41,000 last year, his party colleague Gita Mukherjee's margin dropped from 175,000 to 40,000 in Panskura.

Understandably, the Left is not too pleased with its waning popularity in this tribal dominated area of West Bengal.

Political analysts are unanimous that the CPI-M, which has already conceded the Midnapore municipal board to the Trinamul, will find it increasingly difficult to maintain its supremacy in the 2001 assembly election.

Mamata Banerjee said, ''The CPI-M is now convinced that it will be wiped out by the Trinamul's wave in the next year's assembly polls. So its leaders are now resorting to terror tactics. But what they appear to have forgotten is that they are no longer up against a depleted opposition as it used to be the case in the past. The people of Bengal have now realised that only Trinamul can bring an end to the CPI-M's misrule.''

The CPI-M, on the other hand, blamed Mamata for wreaking havoc in the otherwise peaceful West Bengal. Its state secretary Anil Biswas said, ''You know how there has been a huge influx of anti-social elements both in the Trinamul and the BJP in the recent past. Mamata has long been eyeing the chief minister's post. So she wants to see her dreams realised at any cost, even if it means widespread bloodshed. But as long we are in power, her dream to become CM will never materialise.''

As the dates for the assembly elections come closer, the inter-party clashes will only assume alarming proportions and, needless to say, this game of oneupmanship will see even more bloodshed.

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