Two days ahead of the sixth phase polling in the Lok Sabha elections, a woman supporter of the BJP was killed in Nandigram, resulting in large-scale protests on May 23 in the region that will be voting on May 25.
Rathibala Arhi was killed by unidentified miscreants late on May 22 and her son — a local leader of the Scheduled Caste morcha of the BJP — sustained grievous injuries.
Violence erupted on May 23 morning at Sonachura village in Nandigram in protest against the incident. BJP workers set several houses on fire and attacked houses belonging to Trinamool Congress supporters. The villagers blocked road by felling trees and prevented the police from entering the violence-affected areas.
The police used force and resorted to baton charge and disbursed the protesters.
While the Trinamool leadership claimed that the death was result of a faction feud between the old BJP and new BJP, family members of the deceased claimed that it was a political murder. “Our brother-in-law was in Trinamool but later shifted to BJP. The Trinamool people were angry as to why he was working for BJP,” the daughter-in-law of the deceased said.
Trinamool spokesperson Santanu Sen called the incident a “reflection of the BJP’s internal feud between the party’s old-timers and its new recruits in Nandigram”.
Suvendu’s charge
BJP leader and Nandigram MLA Suvendu Adhikari said the violence was result of incitement by Trinamool general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, who addressed a public meeting in the area on Wednesday.
“The bloodshed was a direct fallout of Bhaipo’s [nephew] provocation in Nandigram yesterday [May 22]. 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,” he posted on social media.
Mr. Adhikari, who visited the local police station, alleged that the police held a meeting with an accused Trinamool leader in the police station. The Leader of the Opposition was heard exhorting Central police forces to take action against those responsible for the violence.
In the 2021 Assembly polls, Mr. Adhikari defeated Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee by a margin of 1,956 votes. Nandigram is considered a stronghold of Mr. Adhikari.
Nandigram falls under the Tamluk Lok Sabha constituency, which is witnessing a contest between the BJP’s Abhijit Gangopadhyay and Trinamool’s Debangshu Bhattacharya.
The violence brought back memories of the 2007 agitation against forcible land acquisition where the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Trinamool were at the loggerheads.
