Jangipara, April 20: The Trinamul Congress has alleged that policemen in plain clothes are helping the CPM intimidate its candidates in Hooghly’s Jangipara.

Of the 155 gram panchayat seats, Trinamul candidates have been able to file nominations for 79. In panchayat samitis, which have 30 seats, they have managed to file nominations for only 14.

“I have just got to know that Dulal Hajra, Ananda Ghosh, Alpana Ghata, Ajit Malik and Tapasi Chatterjee are all withdrawing nominations by April 22. The number is growing by the hour. The situation is completely out of control,” Trinamul district secretary Ehsan-ul Haq Badshah said.

“There is no point asking the police for help. We have informed the district police chief about the situation but even he can do little.”

The police had allegedly threatened Trinamul leader Muhammad Idris, who is contesting from the Dilakhas gram panchayat, on Friday.

“I was asked to pay a visit to the local police station by April 19. I did not go. But I shudder to think what will happen to me now,” he said.

Somnath Mondal, contesting from the Kotalpur gram panchayat, said about 40 CPM activists came to his house and threatened him with murder if he did not withdraw his nomination as policemen stood outside.

“They threatened me a couple of days ago. Policemen in plain clothes waited outside. They had come together,” he said.

Officer-in-charge C. Suprakash Pattanaik denied the allegations. “These are all baseless lies. We neither have the time nor the inclination to go to anybody’s house for such things,” he said.