The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha on Thursday first changed the indefinite bandh in the hills into a four-day affair because of Id but within hours, it again reversed its decision and said that the bandh beginning on Saturday would be indefinite.

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday blamed the Congress-led UPA government’s decision to grant a separate Telengana state for the fresh turmoil in the Hills.

The 72-hour bandh crippled normal life in the Hills, dealing a major blow to Mamata Banerjee’s Darjeeling success story.

In another setback to the Mamata Banerjee government, the Calcutta high court rejected its proposed date for civic polls and accepted the date suggested by the state election commission.

The continuing electoral violence took a tragic turn when three children were injured in a bomb explosion at the house of a Trinamul Congress leader in a Malda village. One of them Aziz is critical. The bomb blast triggered a blame game. The Trinamul Congress camp accused the Congress workers of hurling bombs at Merina Sultana’s home while the Congress said that the bombs were stocked there.

Birbhum Trinamul Congress district president Anubrata Mondal’s direction to party workers to hurl bombs at the police and administration and burn down the houses of Independent candidates triggered a political storm.

A Trinamul Congress worker Nazrul Molla was gunned down at his home a little after midnight on Wednesday in Bhangar area in South 24 Parganas.

Emulating party chief and chief minister Mamata Banerjee, Trinamul Congress MP Kalyan Banerjee on Saturday launched a scathing attack against the state election commissioner Mira Pande, alleging that she had crossed her limit.

Shedding their fears, the people of the three districts of the Jangalmahal — Purulia, Bankura and West Midnapore — which were till recently Maoist strongholds, voted zealously till the early hours, pushing the average poll percentage to beyond 86 per cent.

The Mamata Banerjee government may have congratulated itself for peaceful elections in the Jangalmahal, but Opposition Congress and CPI(M) cried foul. The CPI(M) chairman Biman Bose said this was not a free and fair election.