Reports have been coming over the past few months of BJP leaders fleeing West Bengal following threats by the ruling Trinamool Congress in the state. The Panchayat elections were mired in violence and alleged concerted attacks on opposition party candidates by the TMC and the ruling party won a great many seats uncontested as a consequence.
In its report, Times of India has mentioned that the state unit of the BJP in Jharkhand has provided shelter to at least 80 members of the party who were allegedly evicted from their villages by the TMC. “We have put them (gram panchayat members) up at Agrasen Dharamshala and Naya Bazaar Dharmshala in Chakulia,” TOI quoted BJP functionary Sameer Mahanty as saying. The report quotes another BJP leader, Abani Ghosh, from Jhargram as saying, “TMC leaders have been using threats to make us support their candidates as gram pradhans. They often barge into our houses at night and threaten that they will not spare us if we do not support their candidates. The pradhan poll process will continue until the middle of August.”
Talking to OpIndia, a BJP leader from Bengal confirmed that in most places, BJP leaders have been kept away from their constituencies after receiving threats from the TMC. He further asserted that the Police has been acting like the cadres of the Trinamool Congress. “Police Trinamool er cadre er bhoomika paalon korchhey (The Police is playing the role of TMC cadres in the state),” he said.
News of a BJP leader’s brutal murder in Bengal recently rocked the nation. Shaktipada Sardar from Mandir Bazaar in South 24 Paraganas was brutally hacked to death. Bengal BJP accused the TMC of murdering Sardar. In June, the body of Dulal Kumar was found hanging from an electric pole. In May, the body of BJP worker, Trilochan Mahto, was found hanging from a tree. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s nephew, Abhishek Banerjee, had earlier said that he would make the Purulia district ‘Opposition Free.’