Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar faced protests in multiple locations of Cooch Behar district on Thursday when he visited some areas that saw post-poll clashes.
His convoy faced black flags, “go back” slogans and questions on why he was silent on the Sitalkuchi deaths.
Dhankhar did not meet the families of four youths of Sitalkuchi who had fallen to CISF bullets on April 10 during polls. Neither did he meet the kin of Ananda Barman, a youth shot on the same day in a clash in another poll booth.
“The governor has always crossed his brief..His visit to Cooch Behar is nothing but a BJP-conceived plan (to further a lopsided version of post-poll violence),” said senior Trinamul leader Sougata Roy.
Mariam, one-and-a-half months old, lost her father Maniruzzaman Mian when CISF jawans opened fire in Sitalkuchi during polling on Saturday.
Four days later, the baby found herself in the hands of a visitor who came calling in a wheelchair. Handed back a little later, Mariam slept without fuss in her mother Rahila Begum’s lap as Mamata Banerjee promised to heal the wounds of the widow in her early twenties.
“There won’t be any problems.… We will take care of you,” the chief minister told Rahila whose husband was one of the four who were killed in the firing by the central force.
The Burmans of Cooch Behar’s Pathakuli are a divided lot and a tragedy has made the rift deeper. On Wednesday morning when Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee came calling on the kin of those killed on April 10, Jagadish, father of the slain 18-year-old first-time voter Anand, refused to meet her.
Jagadish Burman’s refusal was a reminder of the acrimonious atmosphere that personal political choices can create within a family and its fallout.
Instead, Anand’s maternal grandfather Kshitish Chandra Roy and uncle Ranjit later went to meet the chief minister at Mathabhanga, where she addressed an campaign meeting.
The residents of Sitalkuchi’s Jorpatki have a question for the Election Commission: why did it not send any representative to the village after the deaths of four voters in CISF firing, unlike its prompt action when a BJP politician was found dead in the same district?
Most of the villagers
The Telegraph spoke to said they were high school dropouts with very little idea about the outside world, but were aware that the poll panel was supposed to be a neutral body.
Two yardsticks
“A few days ago, a BJP leader was found dead in Dinhata town. Immediately, the Election Commission ordered an investigation and sent the special police observer to Cooch Behar to conduct an inquiry and submit a report,” said Mortuza Mian, a local youth.