By IANS,
Kolkata : Clashes broke out between activists of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and the Trinamool Congress at trouble-torn Nandigram in West Bengal’s East Midnapore district Sunday, with both sides firing and hurling bombs indiscriminately.
“We have received reports of indiscriminate firing and hurling of bombs. But nobody was injured in the clashes between the two parties,” Nandigram police station officer in-charge Debasish Chakraborty said.
The disturbances occurred in Garchakraberia and Jadubarichak localities a day ahead of the swearing-in of the sabhadhipati (president) of the district council – the top level of the three-tier rural panchayat system in the state.
Riding on a violent agrarian movement against the state’s ruling CPI-M-led Left Front on the issue of the government’s bid to acquire large tracts of farmland for setting up a chemical hub, the Trinamool had not only swept the rural body polls in Nandigram, but also wrested control of the district council.
Trinamool’s East Midnapore district president Sisir Adhikati alleged that the CPI-M precipitated the trouble in the two areas to strike terror in the people’s mind before the scheduled swearing-in ceremony.
CPI-M’s East Midnapore district secretariat member Ashok Guria denied the allegation and accused the Trinamool of attacking his party’s supporters.
Nandigram has grabbed international attention since January last year as various opposition parties led by the Trinamool Congress launched an agitation that forced the Left Front government to cancel the industrial project there.