KOLKATA: Three persons, including a booth president of Trinamool Congress, were killed in a massive explosion inside a house late on Friday at Bhupatinagar in East Midnapore.
Police said forensic experts visited the spot and collected samples to ascertain why the explosion occurred.
The deceased booth president Rajkumar Manna's house turned into a heap of rubble because of the impact of the explosion.
"Residents of the area woke up with a loud noise of an explosion around 11 pm on Friday. They rushed to the spot only to find the debris where bodies of three persons were lying," said a police officer of East Midnapore district.
Reacting to the incident, BJP alleged that the explosion took place when crude bombs were being made inside the house preparing for violence in the next year’s panchayat elections.
BJP’s national vice president Dilip Ghosh alleged that the entire state had become a bomb-making industry. "The ruling party is full of antisocial elements. Only the bomb-making industry is flourishing in the state," he said.
Demanding a statement from chief minister Mamata Banerjee, CPI(M)’s central committee member Sujan Chakrabarty said, "Such incident indicates what is going to happen in the panchayat elections. Why is the chief minister silent?"
TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said that it was very easy for the opposition to blame the ruling party without any evidence. "It is being investigated whether bombs were hurled at the house from outside," he said.