With reports pouring in of the CPI(M) arming its cadres, speculation is rife that a section of Marxists leaders in West Bengal are forcing the state administration to set up a unit along the lines of the state-sponsored salwa judum in Chhattisgarh. The Union home ministry has been informed that 95 camps of armed Marxists cadres have already been set up in West Midnapore.
Following the recent killing of seven villagers, including two women, in Lalgarh area, all-out war has broken out between political outfits for control over 40 Assembly berths in three districts in West Bengal — West Midnapore, Purulia and Bankura. Home ministry officials have gone on record to say they “expect unprecedented violence” during the Assembly elections in the state. The state administration has also been severely criticised for the failure of the security forces to reach the sites of massacres in time.
While the killings took place around 8.30 am on January 7, the police force reached some time in the afternoon. The killing ground was only three km away from the Lalgarh police station.
However, while the CPI(M), which controls all 40 Assembly berths in West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia, apparently intends to exercise all possible options to retain them, Trinamul Congress strategists have also decided to use muscle-power to counter the reds.
During the 2006 Assembly polls in Bengal, the CPI(M) had won all 40 seats in these areas. However, with the surge of the Trinamul Congress, the reds are apprehensive of losing a chunk of the berths. It was being claimed that the CPI(M), in the garb of fighting Maoists and with the “tacit support” of the state administration, has begun setting up camps to “provide arms training to villagers to fight Maoists”. Sources said the setting up of the camps was in the line of the controversy-ridden, state-sponsored Salwa Judum in Chhattisgarh. Trinamul leaders, and even the home ministry, have described these armed cadres as “harmad (armed thugs)”, which eventually drew a sharp reaction from West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. At a party rally, Mr Bhattacharjee had said: “I was surprised to see the word harmad in his letters. He used the word to describe Left workers. Trinamul is an uncivilised party that calls our workers harmad. But, being an educated person, how can Mr Chidambaram call our workers harmad?”
However, as the so-called camps to train villagers are being officially set up to fight the Maoists, a state police official claimed the rebels had been on the run following combing operations launched by the joint forces. He revealed that the Maoists have now taken refuge in the dense Ayodhya hills of Purulia district, bordering Jharkhand. He added that parts of West Midnapore and its adjoining districts have now been taken over by the armed cadres of both the CPI(M) and Trinamul.
Other areas in which political clashes and violence are expected include Shason, Degonga, Pursura, Arambagh, Dhonekhali, Goighat, Burdwan, Mangalkot, Ketugram, Canning, Lakshmikantapur, Baruipur and Sonarpur. It was learnt that apart from Burdwan, the CPI(M) is on the backfoot in the majority of these areas.