Two days ahead of the sixth phase of the Lok Sabha elections, a woman BJP worker was killed in Nandigram in West Bengal’s Purba Medinipur district, triggering large-scale protests by BJP workers there on Thursday. The region, which falls under the Tamluk Lok Sabha seat and is considered to be the backyard of Bengal’s BJP Leader of Opposition and Nandigram MLA Suvendu Adhikari, will vote on May 25.
The BJP workers took to the streets, burnt tyres and blocked roads with trees and set them on fire. Security was heightened with Rapid Action Force and Central Forces being deployed, besides state police, reports The Indian Express.
The BJP activists alleged that the TMC-backed criminals were involved in the killing of 38-year-old Rathibala Arhi from the Sonachura village, and injuring seven others. Police said that Arhi was killed and several injured after unidentified and armed motocycle-borne assailants attacked them on late Wednesday night.
“Arhi and several other party workers were tasked with the job of guarding a local polling booth last night after poll campaigns in the area ended for the day. TMC-backed criminals attacked them. She was murdered and others were left badly injured,” BJP’s district general secretary Meghnadh Paul told PTI.
Among the seven people reportedly injured, the condition of one was critical and the person was shifted to a hospital in Kolkata, he said.
The incident has led to a political slugfest in the state with the BJP accusing the ruling TMC of orchestrating the attack and the ruling BJP denying the allegations, saying that it was a result of infighing within the BJP, reports The Indian Express.
TMC leader Santanu Sen said that the incident was a fallout of BJP infighting in Nandigram.
“There are two BJP groups in Nandigram. The vote is on the 25th. BJP knows they will be defeated by TMC. It is pre-planned and they are firing from TMC’s shoulder to malign TMC,” he said.
Taking to his social media handle X, Adhikari, in an oblique reference to TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee’s public speech in the area on Wednesday, alleged, “The bloodshed was a direct fallout of Bhaipo (nephew)’s provocation in Nandigram yesterday. The barbaric murder was orchestrated by the Trinamool after realising its certain defeat. The hands of the jihadis do not tremble before hacking a woman to death.”
“The BJP will see this through to its end, exact revenge in a legal manner and respond by democratic means,” he added.