CPI(M) party offices attacked across West Bengal after Mamata heckled in Delhi

Kolkata: CPI(M) on Tuesday alleged its offices across West Bengal were attacked by ruling Trinamool Congress workers today following the heckling of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and alleged manhandling of Finance Minister Amit by SFI members in Delhi. The attacks took place in Hooghly, Howrah, Bankura, Birbhum, North and South 24 Parganas, Nadia, Cooch Behar and Darjeeling districts, CPI(M) sources said.

A former party MLA Akkel Ali and two local leaders Sheikh Sahabuddin and Durjay Mukherjee were injured and hospitalised in an alleged attack by Trinamool men at a party office in Bagnan in Howrah district. CPI (M) offices were vandalised Udaynarayanpur, Salkia and Domjur in Howrah district. Six CPI(M) offices at Barrackpore in North 24 Parganas district were burnt down and the car of former minister and CPI(M) leader Sudarshan Roychowdhury damaged at Serampore in Hooghly district, sources said. Another ex-minister and veteran leader Abdur Rezzak Mollah`s car was attacked with bombs at Baruipur in South 24 Parganas district, they said. In Nadia district, CPI(M) offices in Chakdaha, Kalyani, Shantipur, Mohonpur, Gayespur, Madanpur, Kataganj, Haringhata and Hanskhali were ransacked. District CPI(M) Secretary Sumit Dey alleged five party workers were injured in the attacks, a charge denied by TC district leaders. CPI(M) workers were driven out of party offices and furniture damaged at Haripal, Tarakeswar, Pursura, and Chunchura in Hooghly district, the sources said. Police said in Pursura, seven bombs were found from a CPI(M) office after receiving a complaint from Trinamool. CPI(M) Bankura district leader Amiyo Patro alleged around 30 armed TMC workers raided the Marxist party office at Taldangra with the police remaining a mute spectator. In Birbhum district, CPI(M) leader Debashis Ganguly alleged TC men from a procession came and vandalised the party`s zonal office in Suri. West Bengal Chief Minister today faced protests over death of an SFI member from Left activists who also heckled her Finance Minister Amit Mitra outside the Planning Commission office here. A group of protesters from Left organisations, which waited for the Trinamool Congress Chief outside the Commission`s office, raised slogans against her when she arrived with Mitra at 3:45 pm to meet plan panel Deputy Chairperson Montek Singh Ahluwalia. Mamata Banerjee, who was advised by police not to get down from her car and drive inside, however, chose to walk through the slogan-shouting and placard-wielding crowd into the building. The protesters heckled Mitra whose kurta was torn in the melee. Panchayat Minister Subrata Mukherjee and Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim also faced the ire of the activists who were protesting the death of Sudipto Gupta, a leader of CPI(M)`s student wing SFI. As SFI and CPI(M) members chanted "Mamata Banerjee hai hai (Mamata down down), TMC hai hai, Hatyari Mamata sharm karo (have shame, killer Mamata)", an agitated CM walked into the building shouting that "this is uncivilised behaviour". Irked by the scene that unfolded outside, she complained to Ahluwalia, "You have created a new precedent. My minister was assaulted. This is scandalous. There were 20 hooligans. Can you stop development of a state like this?" Meanwhile, Delhi Police have registered a case against unknown persons for manhandling West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra. PTI