KOLKATA: Toll in West Bengal violence rose to 17 with five more people succumbing to injuries on Sunday, even as state governor C V Ananda Bose flew to Delhi on an unscheduled visit.
Of the five who died on Sunday, three were from the Trinamool Congress camp. They were killed in Cooch Behar, North Dinajpur and Murshidabad districts. The other deaths, reported from North Dinajpur, were of two Congress workers.
Governor Bose is likely to meet Union home minister Amit Shah and submit a report on the situation. He had visited a number of areas in Kolkata’s adjoining North 24 Parganas district soon after the violence that erupted during Saturday’s local body elections and took stock of the situation.
Meanwhile, protests were held by Opposition parties at several places in the state alleging intimidation and false voting by the TMC. In Birbhum, where BJP once made inroads, workers of the saffron camp took refuge in party offices fearing attack by the Trinamool workers. “They threatened us with dire consequences,” said a BJP worker.