Election dates are to be announced soon, but even before that, CPM and Trinamul Congress activists have started fighting it out in Phoolbagan since Tuesday afternoon.

According to Ashok Kumar Banerjee, officer-in-charge (OC) of Phoolbagan police station, Trinamul and CPM workers quarrelled on Tuesday afternoon when a group of youths supporting the bandh tried to force a milk booth to close down. The booth is a few metres away from the two party offices. Trinamul activists resisted their move.

“We intervened in time and a fight did not break out. But CPM workers allege that late on Tuesday night, a local Trinamul leader, Dilip Singh, stoned their party office and took away a flag with the CPM symbol. Hundreds of angry cadres put up a roadblock for more than an hour and a half,” Banerjee said.

The protestors refused to budge, but deputy commissioner of police (eastern suburban division), Ranvir Kumar, persuaded them to lift the roadblock. “After a lot of persuasion, they agreed, on the condition that the guilty would be punished. But while the CPM members were on their way to submit a deputation to the police station, Trinamul members allegedly hurled bombs at them, injuring two persons,” OC Banerjee said.

Trinamul workers countered this charge, alleging that it was the CPM who struck at them while they went past the Trinamul party office. “It was the CPM cadres who hurled bombs and fired shots on their way to the police station. The Trinamul party office was pelted with stones and the main door was smashed open. The signboard is missing as a result. It was a show of strength,” said Dilip Singh’s wife Dipti.

Singh’s house, which is adjacent to the party office, was ransacked allegedly by the CPM activists. “They have also ransacked our house and walked off with jewellery and cash, after breaking open the almirah. They have smashed the windowpanes, the television set and everything they found in our room. When we tried to resist, they assaulted us,” said Singh’s mother-in-law Alo Rani Das.

According to OC Banerjee, though the CPM workers, including ward 31 local committee secretary Amitabha Sanyal, lodged an official complaint against Singh, Trinamul members, Singh included, have not come up to file a complaint. “The two persons who were injured, Sankar Das and Suranjan Banerjee, were taken to NRS Hospital, treated and discharged,” the thana OC added.

Trinamul members feared they would be arrested if they lodged a complaint with the police. So, in spite of suffering heavier losses than the CPM, they have chosen to remain silent, said local policemen.