TMC followers fight in public

Kolkata: Faction feud within the Trinamul Congress came to the fore on Sunday in heart of the city when followers of two heavyweight Trinamul Congress MLAs — Javed Khan and Iqbal Ahmed — clashed over the governing body election of a hospital. Ten persons were injured while a Trinamul party office was ransacked during in the clash at Park Circus. 

Both the MLAs were present with their aides as the board election of Islamia Hospital was underway at around 11 am. Suddenly their followers got locked in altercation after a candidate fielded by Mr Ahmed, the brother of late Trinamul MP Sultan Ahmed, was found allegedly acting as the presiding officer. 

Mr Khan, who is also the disaster management minister, said, “Our fight is against injustice. There is a case which is pending at the court on the hospital’s governing body. Since the matter is sub-judice, we respect it. But when I found a candidate acting as the presiding officer when he was contesting the election, I confronted him.”

The clash between the aides of the two MLAs reached such a point that a strong contingent of police was deployed to lathicharge the warring group for dispersal. 

“My elder brother was the general secretary of body of the hospital for 20 years. Mr Khan had then stayed away. Now he is trying to interfere. He brought his followers from Topsia to disturb the election,” Mr Ahmed later claimed.