A CPM poster stuck on a tree on the other side of the pillar marking the border in Hili. A Telegraph picture

Hili (Balurghat), May 16: South Dinajpur district magistrate Swapan Chatterjee has asked the block development officer of Hili to find out how CPM posters urging people to vote in favour of its candidates in the panchayat polls have appeared inside Bangladesh.

“I have received instructions for a probe,” block development officer Abhro Adhikari said.

Residents of the area, however, claimed that there is nothing new about people from across the border participating in elections here.

Opposition parties are not amused. In a strongly worded letter addressed to the district magistrate, the secretary of the district Trinamul Congress, Debasish Majumdar, has accused the CPM of campaigning openly in neighbouring Bangladesh. “The CPM leadership has been encouraging this illegal act. Many Bangladeshis — patronised by the CPM — have their names on voters’ lists on this side of the border,” the Trinamul leader claimed.

Majumdar alleged that a central election observer had deleted several names of Bangladeshis before the last Assembly polls. But many of them later got their names enrolled on the voters’ lists, he alleged.

District secretary of the RSP Prashanta Majumdar claimed that almost all the parties in the border areas banked on fake voters from Bangladesh. “Their names are on voters’ lists all along the 225km international border in South Dinajpur,” he said.

The situation in Hili is the worst because there is no barbed-wire fence here. In certain areas like Haripukur, Dakshminpara, Agra, Abtoir and Ghasuria, it is difficult to identify who is a Bangladeshi and who is an Indian, a senior BSF official said on condition of anonymity. “The political parties just take advantage of the situation.”

District secretary of the CPM Manabesh Chowdhury denied the charges of the Trinamul Congress. “Why should we put up posters inside Bangladesh?” he asked.

However, photographs taken by The Telegraph clearly show CPM posters on the other side of the border.