KOLKATA: Just after the end of Durga Puja festivities, political violence returned to West Bengal with Trinamool Congress and BJP leaders dead in separate incidents in Birbhum district of the state. A few hours after Khoyrasole block Trinamool Congress president Dipak Ghosh was hacked and shot at by miscreants while he was returning home at Khoyrasole in Birbhum district of West Bengal on Sunday, BJP booth-level worker Tapas Bagdi was found hanging by a tree at Darka village in Labhpur in Birbhum district of West Bengal on Sunday night.
Ghosh was admitted to a private hospital in Durgapur in critical condition and succumbed to his injuries on Monday evening. Tapas Bagdi's body has been sent for post-mortem. Police sources revealed that Tapas Bagdi could not return home for a few days due to political tensions in the village after Durga Puja and returned only on Sunday afternoon. However, he went out of his house on Sunday evening but did not return at night.
The locals launched a manhunt for the Tapas Bagdi found his body hanging from a tree at a neighbouring forested area on Sunday night. Sources revealed that the victim had joined BJP just before the panchayat election. Low-level TMC-BJP clashes were witnessed in several villages in and around Darka village over the past few days. The recent hanging comes four months after two BJP workers were found hanging in Balarampur in Purulia district of West Bengal which sparked off a bitter Trinamool Congress-BJP feud involving national leaders of both the parties.
However, unlike Purulia hangings, no note or poster was found from the spot of Bagdi's hanging. The post-Durga Puja political violence has sparked off political tensions at the state level with BJP and TMC leaders accusing each other for the two deaths. While Birbhum district TMC president Anubrata Mondal has put the blame of Dipak Ghosh's murder on BJP and warned of 'not keeping quite', BJP denied any involvement in the incident.
On the other hand, while Mondal claimed that Bagdi had committed suicide, BJP district president Ramkrishna Roy said that the victim had no reasons to commit suicide and termed it as fallout of growing BJP influence in the district. State BJP president Dilip Ghosh demanded investigation by central agencies into the hanging ends.