Author: HT Correspondent
Publication: The Hindustan Times
Date: May 8, 2003
The race for the panchayats got
a bit too hot for an embarrassed CPI-M on Tuesday night, when coalition
partner RSP's PWD Minister Amar Chowdhury, was put to flight by a pistol-brandishing
CPI-M worker.
Chowdhury was campaigning at Pakhiraloy
Ghat in Sandeshkhali on Tuesday night.
"There was a commotion over a cycle
ramming into a pedestrian. A hefty man was instigating his associate to
beat up the cyclist. I tried to mediate, when he took out a gun and came
after me. His associates started pelt me with stones," a shaken Chowdhury
said over phone. He had to run over a kilometre to save himself.
The minister escaped unscathed in
the 'friendly fire', but a comparatively slower colleague got the beating
of his life at the hands of CPI(M) cadres.
But true to the 'spirit' of coalition
politics, Chowdhury has not mentioned the party affiliations of his attackers,
even in his FIR.
They have been named as Sofrej Mollah
(the 'hefty man'), Rahim Naskar, Ruhul Amin Mollah and Chhattar Mollah.
The RSP is evidently satisfied with
Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's concern over the incident. "I
must say Buddha is very serious about this," said RSP state secretary Debabrata
Banerjee.
A split is evidently not in the
offing.
CPI(M) state secretary Anil Biswas,
who has sought a report from the district committee, said: "I have asked
for a report from the district committee and will comment only after I
receive it. I have already had talks with the RSP state secretary, you
media can't drive a wedge between us."
The Chief Minister told journalists
that "I have asked my party comrades to find out who this person was and
told the police to arrest him, irrespective of political affiliations."
