Kolkata: Dissidence among Congress and
Trinamool Congress workers came to the fore on Tuesday over the
issue of tie-up for next month`s crucial municipal elections
with the WBPCC office ransacked and a Trinamool demonstration
before party chief Mamata Banerjee`s residence.
For the second time in three days, a section of
Congress workers, opposed to the "insulting terms" of the
alliance with Trinamool Congress for the May 30 polls to the
Kolkata Municipal Corporation, vandalised the WBPCC office.
The protesters stormed the WBPCC office when state
Congress working president Pradip Bhattacharya was at a
meeting with other leaders on the KMC elections, and damaged
the computer room, television set, chairs and the aquarium,
party sources said.
A section of Trinamool workers, on the other hand,
demonstrated before Mamata`s Kalighat residence demanding that
the party should not leave ward-88, under the South Kolkata
parliamentary constituency, to the Congress.
Former KMC mayor-in-council Mala Roy, wife of South
Kolkata district Congress chief Nirben Roy, is a contender for
the seat which she had won in 2005.
Trinamool MLAs Madan Mitra and Firhad Hakim intervened
after which the protesters withdrew.
At the WBPCC office, the protesters, carrying party
flags, scuffled with Congress leaders present and in the
process some including the Seva Dal chairman were injured.
Bloodstains could be seen on the staircase of the PCC office.
West Bengal Chief secretary Ashok Mohan Chakraborty
said that five persons were arrested in this connection.
Condemning the incident, president Bhattacharya said
"It is unfortunate. We have doubt whether they are
Congressmen. An FIR has been registered."
Earlier on April 24, the WBPCC office was vandalised
by a section of partymen over the same grouse.
The seat sharing talks between the two parties for the
KMC poll has bogged down with Congress staking claim for 51
of the 141 seats, which TC has refused to concede.
Congress sources said that TC which had earlier
offered 21 seats, has agreed to leave four more.
PTI
