Mamata govt has stopped listening to people's grievances: BJP's Ravi Shankar Prasad

'This is unacceptable. Houses have been vandalised. Despite victory, many of our candidates and their family members had to flee their homes but no police action has been taken'

PTI, Calcutta, 13.07.23,: Senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad on Thursday alleged that the Mamata Banerjee government has stopped listening to the grievances of people.

The former Union minister, who was speaking to reporters outside Raj Bhavan after meeting Governor C V Ananda Bose, said that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has "merely expressed regret" over the panchayat poll violence but firm action needs to be taken.

"Mamata ji, mere regret will not do. Firm action needs to be taken. Your administration, your police have stopped listening to the grievances of people. Don't the lives of poor people matter to you?" he said.

Banerjee had on Wednesday said she is saddened at the loss of lives in "sporadic" incidents of violence during the panchayat elections.

Prasad, leading a delegation of BJP central leaders, met the governor and "apprised him of the situation in the state".

The team, which also includes BJP leaders Satyapal Singh, Rajdeep Roy and Rekha Verma, visited violence-affected areas in South 24 Parganas district and met family members of those injured.

"This is unacceptable. Houses have been vandalised. Despite victory, many of our candidates and their family members had to flee their homes but no police action has been taken. We demand an answer from Mamata ji. We will submit a detailed report to BJP national president J P Nadda," Prasad said after meeting affected people in Basanti.

He is scheduled to visit other affected areas in Diamond Harbour in the district and hoped the team will not be "stopped by TMC activists en route". The team, which reached Kolkata on Wednesday, visited other affected areas in Hingalganj and Sandeshkhali in North 24 Parganas district on the previous day.

Taking a dig, senior TMC leader Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay said the "fact-finding team" should also include the governor, alluding to Bose's recent visit to some violence-hit areas.

"There had been higher death tolls in past panchayat elections in early 2000s. We don't recall any fact-finding team having visited the state at that time," he said.

The violence, which rocked the panchayat polls on Saturday, claimed at least 15 lives while three more were murdered on the counting day on Wednesday. Since elections were announced last month, at least 33 people have lost their lives in poll-related violence, with the ruling party suffering 60 per cent of the deaths.

Voting for the three-tier panchayat polls to nearly 74,000 seats took place on July 8. Besides the gram panchayat seats, there are 9,730 panchayat samiti seats and 928 zilla parishad seats.

A total of 5.67 crore people living in the state's rural areas were eligible to decide the fate of 2.06 lakh candidates in 73,887 seats of the three-tier-panchayat system.