Congress leaders fail again trying to enter Makhra

According to TV reports, a Congress delegation team led by MP and state party chief Adhir Ranjan Roy Choudhury tried to enter Makhra village under Panrui Police Station that has been marred by political clashes between supporters of Trinamool Congress (TMC) and BJP last week, in which three people died and several others left injured.

The police whisked them away citing prohibitory orders under Section 144, just as they had stopped BJP and Left leaders on Wednesday.

Unable to enter Makhra, Choudhury along with his followers then sat on a dharna and blamed the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinammol Government for the present law-and-order situation of the state.

"Mamata Banerjee should visit the village," said Chowdhury. "She should talk to the affected people. For the last four-five days, nobody is being allowed to go inside the village. This is nothing but a sort of autocracy being perpetrated by the ruling regime," Adhir is quoted by media as saying.

It has been learnt that some of the affected villagers also complained against the state administration and voiced their support for the delegation team.

According to them, the condition of the village is terrible. The police have broken their homes.

They also suspect, Police is not letting anyone inside since that will open the can of worms and the real truth about the government will come out.

It has been learnt that, BJP is expected to send a second team to Birbhum district with relief material for Makra on Sunday.

Earlier on Wednesday, Congress delegation team led by MP Abhijit Mukherjee, son of President Pranab Mukherjee were also stopped from going inside Makhra, but later they were let in adjoining Choumandalpur village after much persuasion.

On the other hand when Left team led by Rajya Sabha MP Ritobroto Bhattacharya tried to enter the village, police resisted them.

When the left leaders indulged themselves in a heated altercation with the police, they were detained.

The very next day, on Oct 30, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders, including Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, were arrested when they tried to enter Makhra.

Besides Naqvi, the BJP's Central delegation included senior leaders such as Kirti Azad, Udit Raj and West Bengal's party unit President Rahul Sinha.

The leaders were later released on bail.

Following his arrest, Naqvi told media: "The police behaved undemocratically today.It seemed that they were aiming to shield anarchists and terrorists."

"If the government had spent half the energy they used to arrest us in apprehending the anti-nationals, it would have been better," he said.

“Even though the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M)-led Left Front is not in power in Bengal, their misrule still continues during the Trinamool regime. The Mamata banerjee government is following in the footsteps of its predecessor in terms of unleashing political violence in rural outskirts,” said Rahul Sinha, after being arrested by the police.

The ruling TMC on the other hand had justified the police action and accused BJP of creating unrest.

On Friday, The BJP and the Left delegations met West Bengal Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi to express their concern on Makhra village incident.

Opposition leader of WB legislative assembly Suryakanta Mishra led CPI-M delegation team demanded the interference of the Governor into the case.

Rahul Sinha brought the victims' families to the Governor.

They also requested the Governor to visit Makhra village.

“Governor has assured that he will consider it,” Rahul Sinha had reportedly told media after meeting Tripathi.