Das Munshi (centre) with Ruby Noor (left) and wife Deepa (right) in Malda on Friday. Picture by Surajit Roy

Malda, May 23: Priya Ranjan Das Munshi today accused the Trinamul Congress and the BJP of helping the CPM in the panchayat elections by dividing the anti-Left votes.

With a dig at Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, Das Munshi, a Union minister, said what has happened is in contrary to what the chief minister had accused him of before the polls.

Bhattacharjee had at a public meeting in Habibpur on May 11 attacked the central minister, who is also the PCC chief, for asking people to vote for a “communal party like the BJP”. He had also reminded Das Munshi that his existence at the Centre lay at the mercy of the CPM.

“What will the chief minister say about the poll results in Malda’s Habibpur? It was Trinamul and the BJP, which helped the CPM win. The Congress candidate lost by a thin margin,” Das Munshi said.

Talking to journalists at the circuit house here, Das Munshi claimed that had the polling been free and fair and the administration impartial, the Left Front would have lost control over at least two more zilla parishads. He alleged that the CPM had used the administration during the polling and also at the counting centres to its advantage. “But we shall combat the CPM terrorism by focussing on development work. We will follow the path shown by Barkatda (the late A.B.A. Ghani Khan Chowdhury) and work in Malda and North Dinajpur with redoubled vigour.”

District Congress president Ruby Noor, MLA from Goalpokhor and Das Munshi’s wife Deepa Das Munshi, AICC member Asit Bose and chairman of the Englishbazar Municipality Narendranath Tewary were among those who were present at today’s news conference.

The minister also demanded the resignation of state election commissioner Ashok Gupta. “He (Gupta) had ordered repolling in places where the CPM had wanted it, but ignored all the demands placed by the Opposition,” the minister said.

Later, addressing another news conference at Raiganj in North Dinajpur, the PCC chief said Deepa Das Munshi has proved her mettle in the panchayat polls and the Congress victory in district was largely to her credit. The minister said Deepa would be given the responsibility of overseeing the municipal elections to be held soon in Dalkhola (North Dinajpur), Haldibari (Cooch Behar) and Alipurduar (Jalpaiguri).