Mamata blames SEC for West Bengal poll violence, says her suggestion for one or two phase poll went unheard

Kolkata: Calling on people to vote peacefully in the remaining two phases of West Bengal panchayat polls, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today said her government's suggestion for one or two-phase poll to check the likelihood of violence went unheeded by the State Election Commission.

"Because of the possibility of an increase in violence with the increase in the number of phases, the government had suggested the holding of the poll either in one phase or two phases, but the State Election Commission did not listen to

us," Banerjee told a local news channel. "Let there be peace in the next two phases of the panchayat election. When I am trying to reach out to people, the CPI(M) is trying to instigate them with an ulterior motive to disrupt the election as they have lost their support base," she said in her appeal.

"People's mandate can't be changed with terror, arson and arms. Its better to accept the verdict," Banerjee said.

She alleged that instead of maintaining peace, the CPI(M) is busy unleashing a reign of terror. The Congress is also busy making false complaints in a bid to "supply oxygen to the CPI(M)".

She also alleged that some ministers of the Congress and former ministers of CPI-M were instigating violence and claimed that poll violence had killed 22 Trinamool Congress workers when they were trying to maintain peace.

Asking opposition parties "not to play with fire", she said, "The CPI-M hatched a conspiracy to disrupt the poll process which, it thought, was going against it." She also claimed that CPI-M workers were putting up road blocks to prevent people from casting votes in North 24-Parganas district in the third phase.

Claiming that Trinamool Congress was no way involved in the disruption of the democratic process, she said, "CPI(M) workers set fire to many houses at Amdanga in North 24-Parganas district, while Congress was involved in violence at Basirhat in the same district."

She further said, "SUCI workers were confronted by the central force at Jaynagar and Kultali in South 24-Parganas district while the RSP was busy fomenting trouble at Basanti in the same district fearing loosing their base."

The chief minister appealed to the people of the four districts of Nadia, Birbhum, Malda and Murshidabad, going to the polls in the fourth phase of panchayat elections tomorrow, to maintain peace and communal harmony in view of the current Ramzan month.

Pre-poll clashes have claimed three lives in Murshidabad district.