Kolkata, May 18
Thirteen persons were killed and at least 50 were injured in the poll clashes that took place during the third and last phase of panchayat elections, being held in seven districts of North Bengal, here today. Unofficial sources, however, put the death figure at 18. Earlier, on May 11 and May 14, ten persons were killed in violent clashes.

Today’s violence took place in union external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee’s Lok Sabla constituency in Murshidabad, where the Congress has been the main political force. In Malda, Dinajpur, Jalpaiguri and Coochbehar also there were severe clashes in which the CPI members were at loggerheads with Congress, Trinamool Congress, SUCI and two of it’s major partners in the front, the RSP and the Forward Bloc, workers.

After the polls, the state home secretary A.M. Chakraborty and state election commissioner A. Gupta admitted that the elections had been disturbed at certain places and re-polling would be ordered after official reports are received from these districts.

The current spate of violence comes after the CPI(M) and RSP leadership jointly decide to hold peaceful elections in the future, after the second phase of poll clashes in which RSP workers and supporters were killed in South24-parganas.

Meanwhile, both the union information minister Priya Ranjan Das Munhsi and WBPCC (l) president Mamata Banerjee have alleged that today’s elections were a mere farce. They have demanded re-polling under the watchful eyes of the paramilitary forces. Mamata, however, once again criticised Das Munshi and Sonia Gandhi for helping the CPI against the will of people of the state.

Leaders of the RSP and FB also attacked the CPI(M) for misusing the police and state machinery during the elections. They said they would soon meet and decide whether they would withdraw from the Left in protest against the CPI’s dictatorship.

Jyoti Basu also expressed concern over the fact that the front was now on the breaking point. He asked the CPI’s present leadership and chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee to immediately resolve the crisis in the front.

Left front chairman Biman Bose also expressed regret that clashes had taken place during elections. He, however, denied that the CPI was alone responsible for today’s violence. He appealed to all the front partners to maintain peace and resolve their differences. Bose denied that the elections had not been free and fair everywhere. He expressed hope that the front would once control the state’s panchayats by garnering the maximum number of seats.