Barman at the hospital. (Main Uddin Chisti)

Cooch Behar, March 19: Eight persons were injured after Trinamul Congress and Congress supporters clashed with CPM cadres at Jiranpur last night and in Bhojanpur yesterday afternoon.

All eight were admitted to the district hospital.

Additional police superintendent James Kujur said both Trinamul and the CPM filed FIRs after the incidents.

The police said Gopal Barman, a former CPM leader of Jiranpur who has switched allegiance to the Trinamul almost a year ago, was attacked last night as soon he emerged from a party meeting. The Congress and Trinamul leaders were discussing a joint strategy for the coming panchayat polls.

In the clash, which followed the attack, Barman and two Congress supporters, Kasem Miyan and Abdul Hossain, were seriously injured and had to be hospitalised. Bishu Barman, a CPM supporter, was also admitted to the hospital with injuries.

Recounting the incident, Barman said the attack had been led by Sachin Das, the gram panchayat pradhan of the area, 22km from here. “Till less than a year ago, I was with the CPM. Now I am with Trinamul. Last night, we were discussing plans to form an anti-CPM front for the panchayat polls and they attacked us after the meeting. Das was leading the group,” Barman said.

Das, on the other hand, has alleged that it was the opposition parties who had masterminded the attack on CPM members. “They are trying to create tension in the area before the panchayat polls,” Das said.

In Bhojanpur, 10km from here, CPM cadres armed with lathis had reportedly attacked a group of Congress and Trinamul Congress supporters. The men had gathered there to protest against alleged irregularities in the 100-days work scheme. Four Trinamul supporters were hospitalised after the clash.

The district president of Trinamul, Rabindranath Ghosh, said the CPM was desperate, sensing that it would fare very poorly in the panchayat elections.

“After the February 5 incident in which the CPM’s police force shot and killed five Forward Bloc supporters, the Left Front is divided in the district. Also, since the opposition against them is steadily rising, they have started resorting to violence,” Ghosh said.

A Left leader, not wanting to be named, said with the Bloc declaring that it will go it alone in the panchayat polls, the CPM will face a stronger opposition. “The Bloc, too, will be a passive supporters of any anti-CM alliance.”