The recent death of a booth-level Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader in the Purba Medinipur district of West Bengal has created a state of chaos. The opposition in the State, BJP, has blamed the alleged murder of their party worker on the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC).
But TMC has refuted the allegation levelled at them and called it baseless.
On May 1, Bijaykrishna Bhunia, booth president of BJP at Moyna, in the evening, when he was on his way home, the goons of TMC reportedly thrashed him in the presence of his wife. BJP claimed that the TMC goons forcibly abducted him on a motorcycle.
The locals found the body after a few hours late at night. The police said the victim’s body had an injury mark on the head, and the authorities are still investigating the incident.
The Opposition leader from BJP, Suvendu Adhikari, commented on the death of the party worker. He said, “Today is the second anniversary of the post-poll violence that started in the state in 2021 on May 2 after TMC came to power. The killing of BJP leader Bijay Krishna Bhunia is a gift to the state’s people to mark this anniversary”.
The BJP has a strong influence at Moyna as the current MLA and former cricketer Ashok Dinda is from BJP. Even Suvendu Adhikari’s constituency Nandigram is near Moyna, as both of these assembly constituencies come under the Tamluk Lok Sabha constituency.
Dinda alleges that the police support the culprits, “It was around 5 pm. Our booth president Bijoy Babu was returning home with his family when they were attacked midway by one Monoranjan Hazra and TMC-backed goons. Initially, they targeted his son, but he managed to escape. Then they showed Bijoy a gun and picked him up. After some time, his body was found”.
He added, “We will approach the high court. TMC-backed goons hurled bombs in the area and police were supporting them”.
On May 3, the Opposition leader called for a 12-hour shut down in the area and demanded a CBI investigation into the alleged murder.
The ruling government called these allegations an attempt to politicise the issue. The TMC has refuted the accusation levelled at them and called it baseless.
The BJP national vice-president Dilip Ghosh who’s also the MP from Medinipur constituency, which comes under the Purba Medinipur district, said the atrocities on the party workers from the opposition are on the rise.
These atrocities have created an environment of terror in an attempt at the upcoming panchayat election, which is scheduled for later this month in the State.
According to TMC, this incident happened due to a family dispute, and the party was not involved in it.
Sangram Dolui, the former TMC MLA from Moyna, told the media, “As far as we know, this is an outcome of a family dispute. The allegations against us are baseless. We, too, want the culprits to be arrested”.
Kunal Ghosh, the state general secretary of TMC, agreed with his colleague and said that BJP is trying to spoil the State’s atmosphere by making false allegations.
He said, “Whenever any BJP worker is found dead, they blame the TMC without any proof; there have been several such instances in previous cases. Later the allegations were proved wrong. Let the police investigate the matter and bring out the truth”.
