Debris at a wooden bridge leading to a neighbourhood in the village of Bogakhali, West Bengal, where homes wer... Read More

NEW DELHI: BJP has invited families of over 50 party workers killed in political violence in West Bengal to attend the swearing-in ceremony of the Narendra Modi government on Thursday, in what is being seen as a message to the state where assembly polls are due in 2021.

Sources said kin of at least 51 party workers killed in the last six years, many of whom lost their lives in violence during Panchayat and Lok Sabha polls, will be among the 7,000 invitees for the inauguration of the second stint of the Modi government at the Jaipur Gate of Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Sources said the family members will leave on Wednesday by train and will reach the national capital on Thursday under the supervision of senior party functionaries from the state, who have been assigned the task of taking care of them.

Of the invited families, 46 are of workers killed in violence during the Panchayat polls and five killed in the recent Lok Sabha election. The families are mostly from Barrackpore, Krishnagar, Nadia, Purulia, Malda, Bankura, West Midnapore, Jhargram, South 24 Parganas, Burdwan, Ranaghat, Birbhum and Cooch Behar. Some of the family members had recently come to the BJP headquarters recently to share their tales of living under constant fear.

“Support for the party is pouring in from across the state and we have to empathise with the families which lost their near and dear ones in political violence in the state,” said a BJP leader. “We have to send across a message to our cadres that they need not feel intimidated as the party and its top brass stand strongly with them.”

BJP has repeatedly alleged that the party has lost 68 workers since panchayat polls last year in West Bengal. Over 20000 seats in panchayat polls went uncontested in the state.

In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, BJP won only two seats and secured about 17% of the votes. But this time, it won 18 seats with a vote-share of 40% in what was billed as a saffron surge.

The families have been invited to the high profile event where West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is also likely to be present.

