A rally of CPM supporters on bicycles in Jalpaiguri on Friday, the last day of campaigning. (Biplab Basak)

Cooch Behar, May 16: The Greater Cooch Behar Democratic Party has gone the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha way, threatening to go on an indefinite hunger strike from tomorrow if those responsible for stabbing one of their leaders in Dewanhat are not arrested by tonight.

According to a complaint lodged with the Kotwali police station, Rahul Miyan, the convener of the local area committee of the party at Dewanhat, 14km from here, was set upon last night and stabbed several times on the head and body. Rahul was on his way home around 11pm after finishing the last phase of campaigning. He was admitted to the Maharaja Jitendra Narayan Hospital in serious condition.

The Greater Democratic Party has filed an FIR naming the CPM’s Dewanhat branch committee secretary, Samir Dey, and seven others. Cooch Behar superintendent of police Anil Kumar said a hunt is on for the culprits.

The Morcha, too, had set a deadline of seven days for the Darjeeling district administration to arrest three CPM leaders for allegedly spearheading an attack on its supporters earlier this month. The party had threatened to bring down 10,000 supporters from the hills to stage a protest. However, the Morcha was satisfied when six persons were arrested even though the three CPM leaders were not among them.

Asutosh Barma, the president of the Greater Democratic Party, said: “If Rahul’s assailants are not arrested by tonight, more than 20,000 of our members will sit for the fast in front of the district magistrate’s office.”

The secretary of the CPM’s Dewanhat local committee, Kalyan Chakrabarty, has denied the allegations. “Instead it was they who abused us and tore of our posters,” said Chakrabarty.

Security for elections

K.L. Tamta, the inspector general of police (north Bengal), today said 8,500 extra personnel would be deputed on Sunday when the five north Bengal districts go for panchayat polls, reports our Siliguri correspondent. “Two armed policemen would be posted in every booth. Also, two companies of BSF would be deployed in strategic locations of Jalpaiguri and one company in North Dinajpur,” Tamta said. “We will also send a company of the state armed police to Cooch Behar.”