Widespread violence is being reported in the panchayat polls in West Bengal. On Friday morning a Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI) activist was shot dead in Jagatballavpur in Howrah.

In yet another gruesome incident a relative of West Bengal Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) leader and state Irrigation Minister Subhas Naskar succumbed to her burn injuries.

She was allegedly attacked by CPI-M supporters in the Basanti area of South 24 Parganas district on Thursday. Ironically, the two parties are allies in Bengal’s Left Front government.

The victim, wife of the minister’s nephew, suffered nearly 80 per cent burns after the attackers set Naskar’s house on fire.