Dhanbad, Dec. 19: Slain Forward Bloc leader Sushanta Sengupta’s widow is picking up the threads of her husband’s party, which was thrown into a disarray after his death. Aparna Sengupta today inaugurated a party office at Govindpur block under Sindri Assembly constituency and iterated her commitment to ensure justice to the poor in the fertiliser town. “My husband laid down his life fighting for the rights of the poor. My sole aim now is to fulfil his dreams,” she said.
The Forward Bloc is looking beyond Nirsa, its traditional base and trying to make a dent in adjoining Sindri, grappling with the closure of the Fertiliser Corporation of India plant. It is trying to cash in on the sympathy wave generated by Sengupta’s murder and emerge as a viable alternative to the BJP in the area. Legislator Phool Chand Mandal, who is also the chairman of the Mineral Area Development Authority, has been on a sticky wicket since the closure of the FCI unit. His inability to get the Babulal Marandi government move things in Delhi cost the BJP dear.
The adjoining Kulti constituency in West Bengal is already a Forward Bloc stronghold.
Sengupta, the Forward Bloc’s state unit vice-president, had an old feud with the Marxist Co-ordination Council active in Nirsa Assembly constituency.
He gave a stiff fight to the co-ordination council candidate, Arup Chatterjee, in the last Assembly polls and lost the seat by a narrow margin. Since then he had been trying to dislodge Chatterjee, who won on a sympathy wave set off by his father, veteran politician Gurudas Chatterjee’s murder.Sengupta was gunned down on the GT Road on September 5. His younger brother, Sanjay, and close associate D.D. Pal were also killed. Sushanta’s relatives lodged complaints against unidentified persons and demanded a CBI probe into the incident.
They also staged demonstrations in Dhanbad and Ranchi. A CBI team reached Dhanbad last week for preliminary investigations and interrogated several people. Sengputa’s widow assured all possible help to the police and expressed satisfaction over the role of district police chief Murarilal Meena in the probe.
However, Meena went on record saying even the eyewitnesses were tight-lipped and the victim’s family members were not co-operating with the police.
Recent media reports, quoting police sources, suggested the involvement of three politicians belonging to different parties in Sushanta’s killing. The police have also interrogated BJP leader Ashok Singh.
Sources added that Nirsa MLA Arup Chatterjee might also be interrogated soon. Another suspect is reportedly a close relative of a minister of state belonging to the Samata Party.
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