india

Updated: Jul 23, 2019 19:58 IST

Six people have been arrested after a Trinamool Congress (TMC) worker was beaten to death on Monday night in Bengal’s Hooghly district allegedly by supporters of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), police said.

Lalchand Bag (37), a TMC was killed in Ghoghat, about 95 km Northwest of Kolkata. The BJP has denied any role in the murder.

Bag’s murder took the number of lives lost in political clashes in the state since May 30, 2018 to 43 and triggered a familiar blame game between the ruling TMC and the BJP.

“We have arrested six people. As many as 21 were named in the FIR registered after a complaint was lodged by the family of the victim. The accused are known to be supporters of the BJP,” said Samar De, officer-in-charge of Goghat police station.

Murder charges have been slapped on those arrested, he said.

Local legislator Manas Majumdar said that since the Lok Sabha elections, Left workers joined the BJP and were threatening TMC supporters in this area. “Bag was dragged to a room, beaten brutally and left by the side of the road. He died in a Arambag hospital,” said Majumdar.

“My husband was threatened for attending the Martyr’s Day rally in Kolkata on July 21. He was brutally beaten up on Monday night,” said the victim’s wife Rina Bag. She also said that assailants had joined the BJP from the Left.

“Since the Lok Sabha election, BJP supporters have been threatening and attacking our men,” remarked Hooghly district TMC president Dilip Jadav.

The BJP rejected the allegations. Biman Ghosh, president of the BJP’s organisation district of Arambag said, “Bag was attacked by a rival faction of the ruling party. Now they are blaming us.” Ghosh also denied the allegation that those arrested were known as BJP supporters.

In a separate incident in Khejuri area of East Midnapore district, Rittika Dolui, a three-year-old girl sustained pellet injuries during a clash between TMC and BJP supporters on Monday night.

Crude bombs were hurled and pellets were fired during the clash. The child was rushed to a hospital with pellet injuries to her back.

Ranjit Mandal, the youth BJP president of Khejuri, claimed that the miscreants, who were supporters of the ruling TMC, opened fire on their supporters in the village.

But Kanishka Maity, general secretary of East Midnapore district TMC, blamed the BJP.

“Since the Lok Sabha elections the CPI (M) men joined the BJP, and they are creating an atmosphere of fear in the area,” said Maity.

The recently concluded Lok Sabha polls have been a watershed in Bengal politics. While the BJP’s seats jumped from two in 2014 to 18, its vote share rose from 17.02 per cent in 2014 to 40.25 per cent this year.

It is believed that a section on the Left votes that suffered a dip from 29.95 per cent to 7.46 per cent, went to the BJP.