Calcutta, Feb. 6: The Forward Bloc today likened the police firing in Dinhata to the March 14 firing in Nandigram.

Bloc state secretary Ashok Ghosh wanted Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee to “learn lessons” from the incident and ensure that there wasn’t a “third Nandigram”.

But he rejected Mamata Banerjee’s offer for an alliance and refused to walk out of the government.

“The police were unleashed on the common people in Nandigram and 14 people died. The second Nandigram happened yesterday,” Ghosh said.

“Will the Left Front government run in this manner and stick to power with people’s wrath heaped on its head? The government can’t be run by the police. The police minister (Bhattacharjee) has to ensure there is no third Nandigram.’’

Yesterday’s firing was “planned and premeditated”, Ghosh alleged. The police fired with the “aim to kill”.

“The deployment of the CRPF in our stronghold Dinhata, unlike in other places of the state where Bloc supporters courted arrest yesterday, was part of the plan,” he said.

He declined to elaborate whose plan it was, saying he would “go into the details at the Left front meeting”.

“My party’s Cooch Behar unit secretary, Udayan Guha, told me he had informed district officials how our supporters would court arrest peacefully. Why then did the firing take place?” he asked.

To ease the tension with the ally, the chief minister and CPM state secretary Biman Bose called the death in police firing “unfortunate and sad”.

But the CPM insisted that the Bloc’s programme in Dinhata was not peaceful as its supporters had “vandalised the SDO office and set police vehicles on fire”.

State secretariat member Shyamal Chakraborty said the violence in Dinhata and the bandh were “uncalled for” and “unwanted”.