Two opposition leaders killed in West Bengal

KOLKATA: A day before the visit of the Union Home Minister P Chidambaram to Kolkata, West Bengal Legislative Assembly (WBLA) on Monday witnessed an unruly scene over the deteriorating law and order situation in the state and killings of two Trinamool Congress and Congress leaders in the state on last Sunday.

Chidambaram will be here on Tuesday and the state Congress leaders are planning to meet him to submit a memorandum regarding the law and order situation in the state which has eroded since the Lok Sabha elections held in May and June this year.

In the state legislature, both the opposition parties---Trinamool Congress and Congress on Monday staged a walkout after the speaker Hasim Abdul Halim refused to accept the opposition leader Partha Chatterjee’s demand to scrap the question-answer session to discuss Sunday’s killings of the two opposition leaders in Habra under North 24-Parganas district by some unknown miscreants.

"The leaders were killed by the miscreants who had attacked them during a blood donation camp at Habra. Such a heinous crime had not happened in the state as the killers targeted them at a blood donation camp. Unfortunately, the killers were very close to the CPIM and we want an urgent discussion on this instead of holding the question-answer session," Chatterjee told the speaker who turned down his plea.

Trinamool Congress MLAs then rushed to the Raj Bhavan to met the governor to lodge their complaints against the state administration. But the acting governor Devanand Konwar who is originally the governor of Bihar, was away from Kolkata. It is learnt that the governor’s office has assured the Trinamool Congress delegates that Konwar will be available on Wednesday to meet them.

While the Trinamool Congress boycotted the proceedings of the House for the day, Congress, however, took part in the proceedings during the second half. Two other MLAs, Debaprasad Sarkar of the SUCI and Chunibala Hansda of the Jharkhand Party also walked out of the House in protest against the speaker’s decision to allow them to discuss the law and order issue.

The Congress plans to meet the Union home minister P.Chidambaram on Tuesday to lodge official complaint against the state government’s failure to protect the common people in the state. "We are trying to meet Chidambaram on Tuesday," said state Congress working president Pradip Bhattacharjee on Monday.

The chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee told the state legislature on Monday that some local Trinamool Congress leaders in Jangalmahal were holding secret meetings with the outlawed CPI (Maoist) and "I can give you the names of the local Trinamool Congress leaders who are in constant dialogue with the Maoists." Interestingly, there were no Trinamool Congress legislators in the House when the chief minister made this statement as the opposition party had boycotted the proceedings for the day.

"It is clear to everybody that violence is the key agenda in Maoists politics and the situation in Jangalmahal and Lalgarh has complicated as the principal opposition party in our state, Trinamool Congress is patronising the banned political outfit," the chief minister told the House while replying a question from Manas Bhunia of the Congress. Bhattacharjee also said that "all political parties should realise the danger posed by the Maoists and all political forces should fight them jointly," the chief minister observed in absence of the principal opposition party in the House.