Krishnagar, May 24: The communist twins are at loggerheads, and not just over industrialisation.

The CPM and the CPI are pitted against each other in the Cooper’s Camp municipality polls in Nadia. Elections to five civic bodies will be held on Sunday.

Cooper’s Camp, once inhabited by impoverished Bangladeshi refugees, became a municipal area in 1997. The Congress has been running the board since then.

The CPM won only two seats out of 12 last time, while the Congress took the rest. The CPM has fielded 12 candidates this year. It has to fight its ally in four wards.

The CPI has not only refused to withdraw its candidates, but has also decided not to campaign for the CPM in the rest of the wards.

The CPI held the CPM responsible for its decision. “When the government is on the back foot over Nandigram, unity in the Left Front was absolutely necessary. But it appears that the CPM doesn’t want to understand the ground reality,” said Kartik Das, the CPI’s Nadia secretary.

The CPI had sought four seats from the CPM, but was given only one. “The seats we had demanded included the two where we lost by less than 10 votes in the last election. But we did not get them,” Das said.

A party leader in Calcutta echoed him. “The CPM is to be blamed for the lack of consensus,” he said.

The CPI seems to have most front partners on its side.

The RSP has pledged support to the CPI candidates. “The CPI has a good following in Cooper’s,” RSP district secretary Shankar Sarkar said.

The Forward Bloc complained about the CPM’s Big Brother attitude. “They (the CPM leaders) don’t want to give us any space here. The Congress and the Trinamul are fighting each other. So, the CPM wanted to cash in,” Nadia Bloc secretary Gour Ghosh said.

The CPM’s Nabadwip MP and state committee member Alakesh Das described the CPI stand as “unfortunate”.

Nripen Hawladar, the chairman of the Congress-run civic board, said the CPM was responsible for the lack of development in the area.