Stop Trinamool's attempts to loot votes: Congress leader to partymen

Kolkata, May 1 (IANS) A senior Congress leader Thursday called upon his partymen to form village protection forces and "resist by whatever means" attempts by West Bengal's ruling Trinamool Congress to terrorise people and "loot votes".

"If any Trinamool-backed miscreant tries to forcibly enter the booth and tries to loot the booth and give false votes, resist. Resist by whatever means you can," said former state Congress chief Pradip Bhattacharya.

"Tell everybody to form village protection forces, so that nobody can intimidate voters by forcibly entering the booth on poling day."

He said Congress workers should also put up resistance against those trying to threaten people before the polling day.

"If anybody tries to intimidate, he should be thrown out of the village," he added.

Bhattacharya's comments came a day after the opposition parties accused the ruling Trinamool of indulging in "massive rigging", driving out their polling agents and terrorising voters during Wednesday's Lok Sabha polling in nine seats in the state.