Bengal panchayat poll nomination process peaceful, asserts Mamata

The Governor had said he has already discussed the situation with Ms. Banerjee.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday asserted that the panchayat poll nomination process in Bengal is peaceful, while slamming opposition parties for trying to make an issue out of “one or two stray” incidents.

Ms. Banerjee’s comments came shortly after Governor C.V. Ananda Bose said that political violence in the state must come to an end, after visiting Bhangore, where supporters of two parties clashed a day before, leaving three dead.

The Governor had said he has already discussed the situation with Ms. Banerjee.

"There is no other state other than Bengal where the panchayat poll nomination process is so peaceful. The opposition parties - CPI(M), Congress, BJP and the ISF are trying to blame us over one or two incidents during the nomination exercise," the chief minister said.

She was addressing the concluding session of the two-month-long ‘Trinamool eh Nabojowar’ (New Wave in Trinamool).

Hitting out at the Congress for "allying with the BJP and CPI(M)", Ms. Banerjee also said the grand old party cannot "expect us to support them in Bengal if they have an understanding with the BJP in the state".

Earlier in the day, the Governor had told reporters that some “undesirable incidents” have happened in some parts of Bengal.