The body of a BJP booth president was recovered from Barjala, Tripura on Sunday, merely days ahead of the state assembly elections to be held on 18th of this month. Incidentally, some opinion polls have been claiming that the BJP is in a strong position to wrestle power from the Manik Sarkar led CPM.
Madhu Deb the party’s booth president from the Ramnagar constituency, was abducted and remained untraceable for a couple of days. The party workers, as a result, pressurised the DGP regarding the matter and he was later found hanging from a tree. BJP President Amit Shah who was in the state has alleged that the CPM cadre was responsible for this act.
As per BJP’s Sunil Deodhar, who has been made in-charge of the state, this was the 11th Tripura BJP activist, killed in the last 13 months. BJP spokesperson Mrinal Kanti Deb though painted an even grim picture by alleging that Deb was the 12th such activist to be killed in the past six months.
Senior BJP leader Himanta Biswa Sarma too alleged that Deb was brutally murdered by CPM goons, and attacked Manik Sarkar by saying that, “white attire of Manik Sarkar ji is getting deeply stained by the blood of innocent and people shall avenge this soon”.
As alleged by the BJP, the state has in recent days, witnessed various murders of its party workers.
In January, a 55 year old BJP worker named Amulya Malakar was hacked to death by an alleged CPM supporter. Just a month before that a BJP activist was killed in north Tripura, where the attackers made him bleed to death.
In July a BJP worker named Nishikanta Chakma succumbed to his injuries during alleged clashes between the CPM and the BJP. December 2016 had seen a BJP leader getting beaten to death by alleged CPM workers.
Incidentally, similar allegations against the CPM, find mention in a recent Swarajya article. The article claims that the communist party creates a climate of terror and intimidation ahead of the polls. As per the article, the CPM restrains opposition candidates from campaigning and issues threats to opposition workers and voters. It is also alleged that CPM workers and musclemen violently go around towns and villages ahead of polling day to create a climate of fear.
Such an intense attack on the BJP functionaries in the state might raise the question whether Tripura is becoming the next Kerala when it comes to violent attacks against BJP workers.
In November a BJP activist allegedly attacked by CPI(M) activists in Kerala’s Thissur, died while undergoing treatment. Earlier in that month, another such worker was killed in Thissur when a car following him, rammed into his bike.
In October the BJP president Amit Shah had outright accused Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan of being directly responsible for the murders of RSS, BJP workers.