Calcutta, May 16: CPM state secretary Biman Bose today stepped up his damage control drive by calling up allies and appealing to them and his own party workers to avoid a rerun of the violence that marked the second phase of the rural polls on Wednesday.

The report in CPM mouthpiece Ganashakti today said RSP minister Subhas Naskar’s relative was injured after bombs stacked in her home exploded. Naskar rubbished such a possibility.

Bose declined comment on the blame game. But it was not difficult to understand what his stand was when he said: “Do you want me to believe that the palm tree near the house got scorched by the explosion.”

Naskar said he was “targeted because of my continued protest against the CPM’s one-party rule”.

Bose, also the front chairman, tried to play down the violence on polling day. “Whatever happened was confined to one block while the polls were conducted in five districts.”

Referring to the panchayat polls of 1983, 1988 and 2003, Bose said CPM-RSP clashes were “unfortunate, but not unprecedented”.

Jyoti Basu had yesterday admitted that front unity had hit the bottom and urged all sides, including the CPM, to “learn a lesson and rebuild the front”.