RSP leaders's kin dead,tension between RSP-CPM

Kolkata, May 16 (UNI) Tension over the CPI(M)-RSP feud continued to prevail as the woman relative of a West Bengal minister, injured in a bomb blast yesterday, died at a city hospital today.

Police said Gouri Naskar, the wife of the RSP leader and Minister Subhash Naskar's nephew, died in the early hours from the injuries she suffered at her residence at Kumrokhali village under Basanti police station area of South 24 Parganas district.

The RSP is an ally of the CPI(M) in the ruling Left Front.

Inspector General of Police (Law and Order) Raj Kanojia said additional Border Security Force (BSF) jawans had been deployed in the Basanti area and the state Forensic department called to ascertain the nature of the explosion.

Mrs. Naskar received 80 per cent burns following an explosion in her house a day after polling was conducted for the second phase of Panchayat elections in which the CPI(M) could not come to seat adjustment with other Front partners in many places because of disunity at the grassroot level.

The RSP alleged that motor cycle-borne CPI(M) activists hurled bombs at the house of the Naskars, while the CPI(M) said the woman died because of sudden explosion in the stockpiled explosives inside the Minister's ancestral house.

''We have increased police patrolling in the area to restore peace. The situation is tense, but under control. No violence has been reported so far today,'' Mr.Kanojia said.

Frequent political clashes have been reported between the CPI(M) and RSP at Basanti as the three-phase panchayat polls are in progress in the state. Three workers of the RSP and one of the CPI(M) had died in political clashes there on Wednesday.

UNI KDG PL LS KP1653