POST poll bloodbath continues in West Bengal as TMC and BJP gangs are fiercely trying to gain control over areas after changed equations in many districts. In this background CPI(M) activists and sympathisers are being targeted by both parties.

On June 5, in Mathurapur town in West Bengal, a group of TMC goons entered the house of Raju Halder and hewed him to death. The attack was barbaric and his body parts were chopped off. His father Abdul Kahar Halder and four women of his family were also injured when they tried to stop the goons. As the news of the attack spread, Kanti Ganguly, Debashish Dey, Samya Ganguly and local CPI(M) leaders rushed to the hospital where Comrade Raju’s body was kept.

The local people reported that it was a planned murder. Raju Halder returned home driving his auto rickshaw around 4 pm, suddenly a group of 30 to 40 TMC goons entered his house, pulled him out of his room and killed him.

Thousands of people gathered in protest when Comrade Raju Halder’s body was brought to the village. They blocked the main road, resulting in confrontation with police. The CPI(M) organised a huge protest demonstration in front of local police station demanding arrest of the culprits.

Shamik Lahiri, secretary, CPI(M) South 24 Parganas district committee, has condemned this planned political atrocity. He has pointed out how TMC is continuing the brutal bloodbath even after the 2019 parliamentary election. In Lalpur where Raju Halder lived, TMC had murdered Salauddin Halder, another CPI(M) leader some time ago.

Kanti Ganguly commented that Comrade Raju Halder was a committed CPI(M) party worker. He was gearing up the defense after the murder of Salauddin Halder. He encouraged people to cast their votes so that TMC’s orchestrated vote loot could be resisted. He even opened a party office in his own shop to supervise the election works. Local TMC leaders did not like it as they sensed this as a political threat towards their undemocratic repressive politics. As soon as the poll was over, they attacked and killed him.

It is important to understand the nature of political awareness  Raju was trying to instill. There are 18 polling booths in Lalpur panchayat and TMC had rigged all of them after coming to power in 2011. But in the 2019 parliament election, Raju decided to confront and defend the democratic rights of the people. His political mobilisation successfully put up polling agents in 17 out of the 18 booths, persuaded people to cast their votes and, thus, saved the election from becoming another mockery. And the result was really encouraging. In his own booth, number 23, the Left candidate bagged 330 votes, TMC-330 and BJP-46. This result is intrinsically important given the present political situation in West Bengal. First, it proves that voters are not polarised religiously; that is to say,  BJP bags all Hindu votes and TMC bags all minority votes, is not true.  Second, the Left is still popular among the mass as a political entity. And most importantly, it shows West Bengal is neither the PM’s nor the CM’s fiefdom which can be ruled or aspired to be ruled through state repression and manufacturing the consent of religious identity.

No arrest has yet been made by the police and this shows the apathy of the administration while ensuring the basic safety of people. Even today people in Lalpur are still scared and frightened as they apprehend another bloodbath anytime.