West Bengal: CPM MP Md Salim convoy attacked in Islampur, blames TMC goons

Kolkata, Apr 18: Voting for the second phase of Lok Sabha Elections 2019 is taking place in three constituencies of West Bengal today. Polling began for the Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling and Raiganj Parliamentary seats on Thursday, April 18 at 7 am and would continue till 6 pm.

Meanwhile, the convoy of CPIM's incumbent leader Mohammad Salim, who is fighting hard to retain his seat in West Bengal's Raiganj Lok Sabha constituency, was attacked in Islampur. According to reports, bullets were also fired at the convoy.

Salim, whose car was pelted with bricks in Islampur, alleged that he was attacked by TMC goons with arms who were threatening the voters inside booths. He added that his attackers are part of the TMC backed cow smuggling gang in the area.

Raiganj, one of the two seats won by the Communist Party of India - Marxist (CPIM) in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections in the state. Meanwhile, Congress is hopeful of winning Raiganj where it has Deepa Dasmunshi, who had lost to Mohammad Salim (CPM) in 2014.

Salim was born in June 1957 in a humble family. His father Azizul Haque worked at the Kolkata Port and Salim was one of the nine children Azizul had with Ladly Haque.

In 1990, he was elected as the Rajya Sabha MP from West Bengal and served two terms till 2001. From 1991 to 2001, Salim also served as the general secretary of the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI). In 2001, he contested West Bengal Legislative Assembly elections from Entally constituency and won by a comfortable margin of votes. He served as a minister in the state cabinet from 2001 to 2004.

Later in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, Salim was elected MP from Calcutta North East constituency, however, in the subsequent 2009 Lok Sabha elections, he lost to TMC's Sudip Bandyopadhyay from the newly formed Calcutta North parliamentary seat.

In the 2014 general elections, Salim again contested from Raiganj seat and pipped Congress' Deepa Dasmunsi to the MP seat by some 1,634 votes. Following his Raiganj victory, he was elected to the CPIM's Central Committee.