Kolkata, April 26: With opinion polls indicating the BJP has left his party far behind in emerging as the principal opponent to West Bengal's ruling Trinamool Congress in the upcoming Panchayat polls, CPI-M stalwart and former Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Thursday urged Marxist workers not to stay away from the elections but unite all Left forces to defeat both these parties.
Accusing the ruling Trinamool of vitiating the Panchayat system fashioned by the erstwhile Left Front regime, Bhattacharjee said its activists have robbed the people of their rights and indulged in corruption.
"We want to change the prevailing situation. We have to re-establish the supremacy of the people in the panchayat system. Towards that end, I appeal to all workers of my party and other Left parties to unite.
"We have to reach out to the masses, and this we have to do not by staying away from the elections. We have to move forward taking along the masses by resisting the attacks," Bhattacharjee, who has been ailing for a long time and confined to home for the last six months, said in a statement.
Describing the Panchayat polls as a fight for life and livelihood, he said while the ruling party needs to be defeated, "the state has to be saved from the ignominy of witnessing BJP's victory".
He appealed to the CPI-M workers to put the party on a strong footing in every polling booth and constituency.
"We have reached the climax of the electoral struggle. Make it successful. I have faith in the Left ideology and strength of the people," he said.
Bhattacharjee's statement comes at a time when pre-poll surveys have claimed that the BJP has emerged as the main opponent of the Trinamool. Amid allegations of widespread violence during the nomination filing process, the BJP has been able to put up candidates in far more seats than the Left Front.
Bhattacharjee, however, said the statement represented his concern over the attacks on his party workers, candidates and their families for the past few days in an effort to force them to stay away from the polls.
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Bad timing: Fraudsters call senior Indore cop during press briefing to pull off 'digital arrest'
Indore, Nov 24: Some online fraudsters got their target and timing horribly wrong on Sunday after they attempted to "digitally arrest" a senior police official with an automated call over "credit card misuse" while he was addressing a press conference in Indore in Madhya Pradesh.
"The caller informed that I had misused my credit card and as a result a case had been registered with Andheri West police station in Mumbai. I was having a press briefing at the time. I was told my bank account would be blocked and was asked to visit the police station in two hours," Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (ADCP) of Indore crime branch Rajesh Dandotia told PTI.
The official said he told the caller he would not be able to make it to Mumbai from Indore at such short notice.
"The caller told me he would be connect me to someone from the police station. He then connected me to another person, who asked me to wait. He said he would talk to his senior officer to see if my statement could be recorded via video call. When he saw me in police uniform, he immediately disconnected the video call," the official narrated.
Dandotia said he asked media persons to record a video so that people can be made aware of such cyber crimes and digital arrest.
Digital arrest is a modus operandi of cyber criminals who threaten a person with arrest, force the person to remain confined in a room while keeping him or her under electronic surveillance and then extort money on the pretext of "clearing" him or her of charges.
जब एडीसीपी क्राइम इंदौर को ही आ गया डिजिटल अरेस्ट के लिए कॉल pic.twitter.com/H965PKz1Mo
— SanjayGupta_Journalist (@sanjaygupta1304) November 24, 2024
