Bloc may reconsider go-alone plans

KOLKATA: Forward Bloc in West Bengal, which had announced plans to go it alone in the May panchayat elections, is likely to reconsider its stand following the party���s drubbing in the Tripura assembly elections, the results of which were declared on Friday.

The Bloc had snapped links with the ruling Left Front in Tripura weeks before state polls and had contested the elections alone. The party had fought for 12 seats against CPIM candidates and failed to win even a single one. In West Bengal, the Bloc has threatened to contest panchayat elections separately and in the light of the Tripura poll results, it is widely expected that the Bloc may not wish to burn its fingers a second time.

That said, despite being wiped out in Tripura, the party on Friday staged a protest demanding names of five of their supporters killed in police firing at Dinhata be included in the obituary references which will be read out in the state legislature.