Prior to the July 8 panchayat elections, West Bengal Governor Dr. CV Ananda Bose said on Monday that he will personally examine the situation by visiting the regions where violent occurrences had occurred.
Bose, who is on a four-day tour to the Darjeeling area, made an unexpected visit to the University of North Bengal where he was presented black flags by members of the student branch of the governing Trinamool Congress who also yelled “go back” to him.
“I want to independently evaluate the panchayat election scenario. In Siliguri, the main town in the northern section of the state, Bose informed reporters that “certain atrocities and some violence had taken place in different parts of West Bengal.
In the previous two weeks, widespread violence related to the submission of nominations for the three-tier panchayat elections has resulted in at least eight fatalities and several injuries throughout the state.
The governor and state election commissioner (SEC) Rajiva Sinha met for two hours on Sunday evening at Raj Bhavan in Kolkata. The governor said on Monday, “I would also want to see the people, the surviving… the victims, and understand how this has impacted them.
According to reliable sources, Bose would likely visit the violently affected parts of the districts of Uttar Dinajpur, Jalpaiguri, and Murshidabad in addition to Darjeeling. In the South 24 Parganas district, the governor has previously been to two of these locations.
Bose also made an unexpected visit to the University of North Bengal at this location while on route to Darjeeling. Members of Trinamool Chhatra Parishad, the TMC’s student wing, presented the governor—who is also the chancellor of the state-run university—with black flags.
Bose met for an hour and a half with top authorities, including acting vice chancellor Sanchari Mukhopadhyay. On Wednesday, the governor is expected to meet with each vice chancellor of each university in North Bengal.