Lodged with her daughter and husband in one of the rooms at the Congress party office in Katwa that has now turned into a dormitory, 26-year-old Manuti Hazra says she hasn’t seen her home for over a month now. Hazra, a resident of Kherua village in Mangalkot, had to flee from her village after armed CPM supporters allegedly went on a rampage.

“On June 16, I was standing near my house when neighbours told me to run. I grabbed my daughter and fled, but four to five CPM men chased me and beat me up. They even tore my clothes. I escaped with my daughter and took refuge in a neighbour’s house. I watched them loot my house and set it on fire. After two days, I made my way to Katwa,” she says.

Like her, around 250-odd villagers from Mangalkot have taken refuge at the party office since the murder of a local CPM leader, Falguni Mukherjee, near Dhanyarukhi village on June 15.

They allege that CPM supporters, incensed by Mukherjee’s murder, attacked several villages under Congress-led Bhalugram gram panchayat (GP) for nearly a week.

Of the 17 seats in the GP, nine were won by the Congress and eight by the CPM in the last year’s panchayat elections.

“They didn’t allow us to contest in four seats, but we still won nine,” says Congress MLA from Katwa Rabindranath Chatterjee, who was one of the eight Congress MLAs assaulted allegedly by CPM men at Dhanyarukhi on July 15. Chatterjee, who was given eight stitches on his head, has demanded a CBI inquiry if the police fail to arrest those named in the FIR.

... contd.