Mamata stands by bandh call

Statesman News Service

MALDA, April 9: The Trinamul chief Miss Mamata Banerjee said that she would never call off the state bandh on 21 April on the issue of price hike in response to an appeal fr-om the Left Front chairman Mr Biman Bose who urged to ‘keep the bandh on hold’, called by Trinamul Congress and Suci jointly, till the last date of withdrawal of candidatures for the first and second phases of panchayat poll. “We had called the bandh before notification of the election and date of nomination, scrutiny and withdrawal. Now the (state) government will decide on it. It is their duty to extend the date”, she said.Speaking to the media persons in Malda, Miss Banerjee said: “What role the CPI(M) is playing in protest against price hike of essential commodities in the country. The CPI(M) has planned to stage movement on this issue, ‘why don't they withdraw support from the UPA government on this issue’? The CPIM's movement on this issue is just a ‘drama’ to fool the people”, she added. The Trinamul chief criticised schedule of the three phase panchayat polls and asked why a part of state would be given more days for campaigning. Miss Mamata Banerjee also said the top ranking government officials are acting as machineries for panchayat polls for the CPI(M) here and violated model code of conduct. Citing an example and showing a letter of the Howrah district magistrate, Miss Mamata Banerjee said: “This top official issued a letter on 5 April to all block development officials for issuing ration card to the people just before panchayat polls. I suspect that all district magistrates have instructed to issue ration card in their respective areas so that people can show identify instead of their electoral photo identity card to cast vote”.Why are they distributing rat-ion cards now?, she asked adding “10,000 to 15,000 ration cards would be distributed to each block like Panchla, Sakrail and other blocks in Ho-wrah”.The Trinamul chief has termed the Congress and the CPI(M) as ‘two brothers’ to run the UPA government in Delhi.“We will share seats with Progressive Secular Democratic Front partners including the SUCI and CPI (ML) New Democracy in panchayat polls on the through discussion but not the Congress. We will try to nominate candidates in all seats”, she claimed.