Trinamul rigged rural polls: Karat
With poll surveys projecting a major setback for the CPI(M) which may have lost further ground in West Bengal, the major Left party blamed the Trinamul Congress for it, saying such a thing can happen only if “rigging takes place” like the one which took place in the just-concluded panchayat elections in West Bengal.
“The results of such a rigged election can only be a distorted one,” CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat said, replying to a query whether the Left is admitting defeat in the panchayat elections even before the results are announced. On allegations that a similar situation used to prevail during the earlier Left rule, he said there were seven panchayat polls and the Opposition would win 40 per cent of the seats on an average. “They would not have won had we rigged these elections,” he said.
, adding that even in the previous panchayat polls, the TMC had won a majority of gram panchayats in four districts of the state. Accusing the Trinamul of “doing everything to subvert the poll process”, he said Central forces sent to Bengal “were not deployed in any sensitive or hyper-sensitive areas”. “The Central paramilitary forces were either asked to patrol the highways or kept in reserve. The state police which was deployed just stood by and watched rigging and other violations by the Trinamul men,” he said.
The CPI(M) , meanwhile, is trying to formulate a strategy to counter the TMC attacks on its cadres by trying to form a common platform with the Congress. Sources said the strategy has been discussed at the party politburo meet and the issue will extensively be discussed in its next meeting in August to find ways for the CPI(M) cadres to protect themselves against such brutal violence unleashed by the TMC.
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