Mamata Banerjee on Monday sought governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi’s intervention to stop the alleged intimidation of Trinamul Congress panchayat candidates by the CPM.

“We told the governor to step in so that my candidates can contest the polls. He has promised to take the matter up with the poll panel,” she said, after a meeting with Gandhi at Raj Bhavan. Her party requested the governor to ensure central force presence during the polls.

The CPM’s Biman Bose reacted by saying that holding rallies in Calcutta for the rural polls won’t help.

Picture by Rashbehari Das

Tamluk, April 28: The East Midnapore administration today declared all the 171 booths in Nandigram sensitive and said the land-war zone would be “sealed off” during the panchayat polls.

“We consider all booths in Nandigram sensitive and armed guards will be deployed in each of them,” district magistrate Anup Agarwal said.

However, the number of guards is yet to be finalised.

The district magistrate said the CRPF personnel deployed in Nandigram would also be stationed at the booths.

Nearly 1.76 lakh people are expected to vote in the two Nandigram blocks on April 11.

Tension has been simmering in the area over the past month, with clashes between the Bhoomi Uchchhed Pratirodh Committee and the CPM injuring a dozen people.

According to senior police officers in East Midnapore, there are many hidden arms in Nandigram that need to be seized before the polls.

“We know there are arms hidden in Nandigram. We will have to ensure they are not used during the panchayat polls,” district superintendent of police S.S. Panda said.

Senior police officers said raids would soon be carried out for the arms and check-posts set up on all approach roads to prevent the entry of a fresh cache.

“We will virtually seal off Nandigram before the panchayat polls in order to ensure peaceful polls,” an officer said.

The authorities are also concerned about three bamboo bridges that have sprung up across the Talpatti canal at Garupara, Simulkundu and Kanungochowk.

“We are really worried about the bridges as they connect Khejuri’s Sherkhanchowk, Bahargunj and the Janani brick kiln with Nandigram,” an official said.

Ten armed CPM supporters had been arrested from the brick kiln on March 17, 2007, three days after the police firing on anti-land acquisition activists left 14 people dead.

The Trinamul pointed fingers at the CPM. “They have built the bridges to bring in CPM-backed anti-socials,” said Abu Taher, a Trinamul leader and convener of the Pratirodh Committee.

The party today lodged a complaint with Shantiram Gorai, the block development officer of Nandigram block I.

“We are inquiring into the matter,” the officer said.

“If we find that the bridges had been constructed without permission, we will pull them down.”