Bengal CPM cadres bomb ally Minister’s house

Gouri Naskar, a relative of the minister, sustained 90 per cent burns and was shifted to SSKM hospital in Kolkata where doctors said she was critical. Her husband, Uday Naskar, who is the Minister’s nephew, also sustained burn injuries.

The incident triggered off another bout of bitter squabbling between the Left partners prompting CPM patriarch Jyoti Basu to comment: “The time has come to rebuild the Left Front anew. Fissures seem to have run deep.” Only yesterday, three RSP supporters — the party has only 23 MLAs in a House of 294 — were killed allegedly by armed CPM cadres. A CPM activist was also killed.

Basanti, in South 24-Parganas, where the Minister’s house was attacked, has been a traditional stronghold of the RSP with the CPM playing second fiddle. In fact, the political power equation here is peculiar: the RSP occupies the main political space, the CPM plays the virtual Opposition with neither the Trinamool nor the Congress having any base. As in previous panchayat polls, this year too, the two parties failed to come to any understanding and both fielded candidates against each other.

In fact, the build-up to the poll was fraught with tension as RSP’s Kshiti Goswami and state PWD Minister urged party supporters to adopt the “Nandigram model of opposition” to the CPM. “Just as in Nandigram, all anti-CPM forces should unite to fight the CPM,” was his constant refrain in election rallies.

Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, accused of letting the administration turn the other way while such violence rocked the area, today initiated a fresh move to rein in the warring partners. He formed a...