Several injured in the face off between CPM and Police in Kolkata

KOLKATA: After a poor show in the recent civic election, in which CPM virtually failed to open its account, the Left Front cadres and supporters indulged into a violent confrontation with police on the main streets in the city and suburbs leading to Nabanna, the state secretariat. In the battle between Left cadres and police, many senior leaders of the party including Left Front chairman Biman Bose and former minister Kanti Ganguly were injured while several security personnel too sustained injuries.

The Left Front had decided to march to Nabanna to protest on various issues including alleged corruption in governance by the Trinamool Congress. Various wings of the Left parties including its peasant’s wing, trade unions and other frontal organisation joined the programme. The left cadres also demanded fair price for the farmers’ produce.

Even though, chief minister Mamata Banerjee and her bureaucrats were not in Nabanna as they travelled to Birbhum district to hold the administrative meeting, there had been an elaborate security arrangement on all roads approaching Nabanna. According to sources , the city commissionerate deployed at least 2000 police personnel. The police resorted to lathi charge after the protesters started pelting stones, bricks and rods at the police. Police charged tear-gas-shells and used water cannons to disperse the crowd from the area. The pitched battle between the Left cadres and government went for long.

According to the political observers, the Left Parties took to street to re-establish its presence at a time when its existence is fading with an apparent saffron surge in the state. Suryakanta Mishra, state secretary of CPM however said that their ‘protest and fight to establish democracy in Bengal will go on.”

Partha Chatterjee, secretary general of Trinamool Congress said that it was CPM’s ‘desperate effort to make their presence felt in Bengal.’
Due to the law violation programme by Left parties, central Kolkata remained paralyzed for the day and the traffic in the city went haywire.