Malbazar, Dec. 29: A bandh called by the Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad today kept away tribals from a CPM meeting where party secretary Biman Bose announced the formation of a new front that he said would work for them.

The majority of tribals in the Dooars stayed away from the CPM meeting. Police escorted CPM cadres to the Forward Club grounds — the meeting venue 45km from Jalpaiguri town — but they were mostly non-tribals.

The bandh supporters moved away on seeing the police vehicles, which made way for buses and cars carrying CPM activists.

Besides Bose, CPM politburo member Brinda Karat and district secretary Manik Sanyal addressed the rally, attended by around 4,000 people. Parishad sources said that the number could have gone up to 50,000 had tribals from Malbazar tea gardens attended the meeting.

The Parishad had called the bandh to counter the CPM meeting. The outfit has accused the party of doing little for the development of tribals in the past 34 years.

“Had it been a successful CPM meeting, hordes of Adivasis from the gardens would have arrived and the crowd would have been close to 50,000-60,000,” said John Barla, the president of the Dooars-Terai committee of the Parishad, which now has a considerable support base in the Dooars.

Barla said a meeting would be held at Kalchini’s Atiabari tomorrow to counter the CPM’s “criticism” of the outfit.

The bandh supporters used tyres, flags and stones to raise blockades on NH31, Lataguri-Chulsa road and other arterial routes in the Dooars, disrupting normal traffic.

At Ranichera More near Odlabari in Jalpaiguri, suspected bandh supporters pelted a pick-up van carrying CPM supporters with stones.

Three passengers who were injured where administered first aid at Malbazar Subdivisional Hospital.