Jalpaiguri, April 25: Residents of Dalgaon Tea Estate have threatened to boycott the Lok Sabha poll if the 92 people arrested in connection with the December 6 attack on erstwhile Citu leader Tarakeshwar Lohar’s house are not released immediately.

The detainees have been arrested on charges related to the murder of 19 people who were in Lohar’s house at the time of the attack.

At a meeting organised at the football ground of the estate today, around 4,000 people, all residents of the garden, unanimously decided not to cast their votes unless the government took initiatives to get the detainees released.

The police had initially arrested 113 garden residents in connection with the attack on Lohar’s house. Twenty-one of them were subsequently released.

Ironically, it was the Citu representatives in the garden who took an active role in the boycott call. Though the district Citu leadership has distanced itself from the boycott call, members of its Dalgaon unit went ahead with their threat in violation of the party’s wishes.

Secretary of the garden’s Citu unit Mahananda Lakra, who was present at the meeting, said: “It was the common people who rose against Lohar as he was exploiting and torturing them over the years. It is typical that the Citu leadership is maintaining a silence and has not done anything for those who are behind bars. We want the arrested people to be released immediately, or else we will boycott the election.”

On being asked why he was not toeing the party line, Lakra said: “I am a Citu and CPM representative, but I am also a representative of the garden labourers. I need to understand and take care of their grievances. Therefore, my duty is to stand by them.”

Along with Lakra, other Citu committee members of Dalgaon also addressed the worker’s in today’s meeting and exhorted the people to boycott the poll if garden residents were not released.

Michael Oraon, a youth residing in the garden, said: “We have met Citu leaders in the Birpara belt a number of times to plead the case of those who were arrested, but they have turned a deaf ear to our requests. We think there are people in the party who are still trying to shield Lohar and working for him.”

Michael, who spoke in today’s meeting, clarified that the garden workers had nothing against Citu.

“We all belong to Citu. We haven’t joined any other party. We have nothing against the CPM. All our grievances were against Lohar who had exploited and tortured us. We had dethroned a don but did not withdraw our support to Citu. Unfortunately, we found that the party did little for the workers who had been ardent supporters over years. That is why we have decided to boycott the poll,” said Michael.

Robin Rai, the CPM’s zonal committee secretary of Birpara-Madarihat, said there was unlikely to be any boycott, as the workers’ grievances would be addressed.