After fight,the flight: CPM winds up offices

“The situation in Nandigram and Khejuri is bad. Many of our party leaders,secretaries and members of zonal and local committees cannot return to their homes. Many others are being forced to leave the party by Trinamool hoodlums. Therefore,we were forced to cut down the number of local and zonal committees,” said Lakshman Seth,former MP and CPM state committee member who is considered to be a strongman in East Midnapore.

“I will not call it a shutdown of party offices,but a necessary restructuring. When the situation improves,we will increase the number of committees again,” Seth added. The number of zonal committees in both trouble-torn places has been halved and a number of local committee offices have been shut down.

In Nandigram,the party had decided to merge two zonal committees — one each in block-I and block-II — into a single zonal organising committee,with its office at Reyapara. Similarly,the two from Khejuri will be merged into one.

The local committees of Sonachura,Kalicharanpur and Kendamari will be shut down and assimilated into one Sonachura local organising committee (LOC),which will function from Haldia.

Similarly,Nandigram,Samsabad and Haripur local committees have been shut down and assimilated into Nandigram LOC. Daudpur LOC,formed after the merger of four local committees in the area,will now be situated in Tamluk town,which is more than 60 km from Nandigram.

The situation in same in Khejuri,where local committees in Heria,Lakhi and Tikashi have been shut down to form the Heria LOC. An LOC has been set up at Kolagachia after winding up three local committees.

Five other local committee offices have been replaced with an LOC office in Khejuri.

“A large number of party cadres and functionaries of local and zonal committees have fled the area. Many resigned last year. The party base has eroded completely here. Who will run party offices now? Therefore,such a proposal was sent to Alimuddin Street party headquarters which accepted it. Some of the local committee offices will be shut down. Some others were already lying unused after being vandalised or burnt by Trinamool supporters earlier,” said a senior CPM district committee member.

“This was bound to happen. People have rebuffed the CPM and resisted their acts of terror in both Nandigram and Khejuri for the past two years,” said Suvendu Adihikary,the Trinamool MP from Haldia,who recently defeated Seth.

“Now,they do not have a single supporter here,leave alone leaders. So they are closing down their party offices. In the coming days,they will shut down their party offices from other parts of Bengal,” Adihikary added.