Malda: Union Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi today said it was evident that the Left Front government was losing its grip in West Bengal as CPI-M men forcibly took away photo identity cards of voters in Nandigram ahead of the panchayat polls.

"I received reports from the local levels of the Congress this morning that CPI-M goons forcibly took away the voter ID cards of the innocent people at Nandigram. They have also been threatened with dire consequences," he said while campaigning for the May 18 panchayat polls here.

"The incidents at Nandigram are a shame for the people of the state. Never in its history so many farmers have been beaten up or so many women raped," he said in an apparent reference to Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's comment yesterday that the situation in the area had radically changed and peaceful polls would be held there.

People should give a "fitting reply" to the violence at Nandigram, Dasmunshi said, adding that the state had failed to properly implement the central projects.

The situation at the power front was particularly bad as people in many rural areas have been living without electricity for the past 30 years since the Left Front came to power, he added.
Source : PTI