Section 144 was imposed in the Dhulagarh area after the violence on Monday and Tuesday. Those suspected of rioting were taken into police custody. The situation was not violent but tense. While TMC maintained silence on the subject, Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party galloped into action. Congress appealed for peace and one of its leaders was not allowed to enter Dhulagarh, which was still under Section 144. BJP leaders were also stopped at the police barricade on the main approach road to Dhulagarh, but some BJP workers found their way in through an alternative route. Conspicuous by its absence was TMC. “There’s in any case an underlying grievance because the Hindu community in these parts is convinced that TMC does Muslim appeasement and now they’re really angry,” said one local observer. “The BJP is capitalising on that now by saying to the victims of violence, ‘Where’s TMC now?’” The State government’s damage control measures include summarily transferring Howrah’s Superintendent of Police and offering compensations (in cheques). BJP leaders gave statements to the press alleging that the those responsible for the violence in Dhulagarh were from the TMC and had targeted Hindus. “The first part is right,” said one journalist. “Everyone is TMC here, but who knows? Maybe now things will change because this time, the Hindus really are angry.”