The CPM rally with its lethels in Sitalkuchi on Sunday. Picture by Main Uddin Chisti

Cooch Behar, May 12: The CPM in violation of election commission norms has openly held a rally with lethels (traditional lathi-wielding fighters) in Sitalkuchi, known to be a party bastion.

The model code of conduct debars campaigners from taking sticks and sharp objects that can be used as weapons in election rallies and processions. The CPM flouted the code yesterday.

Today, a clash between the CPM and one of its Left Front partners, the Forward Bloc, in Sitai left five persons injured. Four of them belong to the CPM while one is a Bloc supporter.

The district has been witness to a series of clashes since last Friday. On that day, the two Front allies had a confrontation in Lalbazar gram panchayat in the Sitalkuchi block.

On Saturday, the CPM supporters allegedly attacked the house of a Trinamul Congress leader, Phul Adhikary, in Karai, also in Sitalkuchi, 65km from here.

Trinamul leader Rabindranath Ghosh alleged that the CPM had unleashed terror in the area as all other parties had united against its candidates.

Sitalkuchi MLA, the CPM’s Harish Barman, said the allegations were baseless and it was his party supporters who were being beaten up.

“Trinamul has no support base in Sitalkuchi and is trying to create tension,” Barman said.

In order to bring down the frequency of political clashes in the run-up to the panchayat polls, the Cooch Behar administration has deployed the CRPF, BSF and RAF as well as its own police force across the district.

The deputy inspector-general of the BSF’s Cooch Behar sector, P.J. Rao, said: “We have released six companies, each comprising 70 to 80 personnel. They will remain till the polls are over.” Cooch Behar police superintendent Anil Kumar said the security forces were holding marches jointly in violence-prone areas.