Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee at a rally in Tamluk. Picture by Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya

Haldia, Nov. 22: Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee today ordered the East Midnapore administration to ensure that willing Haldia Petrochemicals employees were allowed to work, after striking Citu supporters clashed with members of a Trinamul union who tried to force their way in.

The order suggests the chief minister is opposed to the first-ever strike in the state’s showpiece industrial project, spearheaded by his party’s labour arm.

However, Lakshman Seth, who leads the party’s labour union at HPL, almost challenged the administration to crack down on the strikers.

“Let there be bloodshed, but we will not allow any worker to join work until the management meets our demand,” he said.

Seth, the former local MP, lost to Trinamul’s Subhendu Adhikari in the Lok Sabha polls this May.

The CPM has also lost control of most rural bodies in the district.

The push for a hike in contract workers’ wages is largely being seen as a “turf war” between the Seth-led Citu union and its fledgling Trinamul rival, which has weaned away about 30 per cent of its members in a few months.

CPM sources said Seth had demanded a 120 per cent rise in the wages in a bid to conso-lidate his base among contra-ct workers. The now earn between Rs 3,500 and Rs 4,500 a month.

Observers saw in the chief minister’s order a warning to Seth who had incurred his wrath in 2007 for issuing an “out-of-turn” notification for land acquisition in Nandigram that had triggered the land war.

In a way, that notification also triggered the CPM’s electoral slide.

Sources also pointed out that the chief minister could not afford to be seen by potential investors as supporting the strike.

This morning, as some pro-Trinamul workers tried to enter the complex, Citu men camping at the plant’s gate stopped them. Supporters of the two unions attacked each other with bombs and the shafts of the flags they were carrying.

The violence went on for about half an hour till police intervened.

About 20 people suffered splinter injuries and three of them have been hospitalised.

Around 10.30am, when Bhattacharjee was holding an administrative meeting in Kolaghat, 40km away, he heard about the incident and asked district magistrate C.D. Lama and police chief Bastav Baidya to make sure all willing workers were allowed entry.

Baidya told The Telegraph the administration would ensure there was no picketing in front of the HPL gate tomorrow so the willing workers could join work. “We shall deploy enough force tomorrow to ensure the gate remains free of obstruction.”

However, he also indirectly blamed the management for today’s trouble. “They (Citu) picketed in front of the gate today because it was closed. If the management keeps the gate open tomorrow, we shall not allow anyone to picket there,” Baidya said.

Sources said the gate had been kept locked by Citu and not the management.