West Bengal as is getting ready for the panchayat polls with single phased voting scheduled on July 8. Reports of pre-poll riots have sparked a fresh war of words between the BJP and the ruling Trinamool Congress in the state.

BJP on Friday, accused the State Election Commission of working in coordination with the Mamata Banerjee government and nothing is being done to control the situation. BJP National spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi said the images of violence  from West Bengal is extremely sad. He said the state government is extremely insensitive to the whole situation and is doing nothing to control it. He said the BJP leaders are facing deadly violence.

As per reports, 4 persons have been killed and many others have been injured in a violence on the last day of the nomination filing on Thursday. Most of the violence has been reported from Bhangore where two persons were killed in the violence.

Trivedi said 25-30 BJP people had been injured in the clashes. He said the West Bengal Election Commission is doing nothing about it. He further added, this was the primary reason the BJP had to approach the Court to control the situation.

He termed the period of violence as a dark chapter in the democratic history of West Bengal. The Calcutta High Court is questioning the West Bengal EC over the level of security deployed ahead of the pre-polls. He further questioned the state government over the level of democracy in the state over the violence before the pre polls.

Mamta Banerjee blamed the Indian Secular Front (ISF) for the pre poll violence in the state. She said the violence had been caused due to some local issues. The Calcutta High court ordered, Central Paramilitary forces must be deployed in seven sensitive districts so that the law and order situation can be brought under control and the Panchayat elections can be carried out in a peaceful manner.   

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The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has accused the West Bengal Police of killing a tribal man during a night raid in the Trinamool Congress-ruled state’s Kaliaganj area.

BJP MLA and Leader of Opposition in West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, in a tweet, claimed that the police raided the home of BJP Panchayet Samiti member Bishnu Barman at 2.30 am on April 27 and during the night raid, allegedly shot dead 33-year-old Mrityunjay Barman.

The incident allegedly took place in Kaliaganj in the state’s Uttar Dinajpur district, which has been on the edge after the purported rape and murder of a minor tribal girl on Saturday last.

The minor’s death sparked protests in the region which were flamed after videos showing policemen dragging the victim’s body through the street, went viral.

Violence erupted in West Bengal’s Kaliaganj on Saturday after a minor tribal girl was allegedly raped and murdered. Videos showed police personnel dragging the victim’s body through the street.

As per reports quoting police sources, the cops were involved in a confrontation with locals during a raid in Kaliaganj last night. They said the policemen were surrounded by the locals and one of personnel was also reportedly thrashed.

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They said that one of the policemen fired aerial shots to push back the mobs as the cops made their escape, however, the sources claimed that it was unclear if the tribal died in police firing, adding that an inquiry has been ordered to probe the matter.

To save themselves, a police officer fired into the air and they managed to escape. According to police sources, it has not been confirmed whether the youth died due to police gunfire or not. An inquiry has been initiated into the matter.

However, the police have yet not issued an official response to the allegations.

Last week on Friday, the body of a minor tribal girl, who was reportedly raped and murdered, was recovered by locals, following which violent protests rocked the Kaliaganj area which intensified after videos showed the cops dragging the victim’s body through the streets.

The frenzied protesters vandalized property, torched the Kaliaganj police station, and thrashed Bengal policemen as they demanded justice for the victim.

Videos doing the rounds on social media shows an irate mob cornering Bengal policemen and thrashing them.

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Prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the CrPC have been imposed and internet services have been snapped in parts of Hooghly district in West Bengal to prevent any untoward incident following clashes between two groups during a Ram Navami rally, officials said today.

On Sunday evening, two Ram Navami processions—one in Rishra police station area and the other near Wellington Jute Mill More on GT Road— reportedly came under attack resulting in clashes between two groups in which some police personnel were also injured, police said.

A PTI report quoting BJP state vice-president Dilip Ghosh, who was part of the rally on GT Road, claimed that the procession was peacefully heading towards the Jagannath temple when it came under attack as a barrage of stones were hurled at the devotees in the rally.

He said that Pursurah BJP MLA Biman Ghosh sustained injuries in the incident.

Officials at the Chandannagar Police Commissionerate said the procession was passing through a traditional route when a group started hurling stones at it, adding that the police took immediate action to address the situation, however, no arrests have been made so far in connection with the incident.

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They said that prohibitory orders under CrPC Section 144 have been imposed in Rishra wards 1-5 and Serampore’s ward 24 while internet services will remain shut in parts of Rishra and Serampore till 10 pm on Monday, adding the police are conducting route marches through affected areas and security has been heightened to prevent any flare-up.

West Bengal Governor C V Ananda Bose in a statement issued a stern warning to those found involved in inciting riots, saying that “miscreants, hooligans and thugs” will be “crushed with an iron hand” and mobocracy won’t be allowed to run riot…. “State is determined to put an end to this arson and looting.”

Bengal Industry Minister Shashi Panja condemned the incident and claimed that the BJP was attempting incite communal riots across the country for electoral gains, adding that perpetrators of the violence will be found and punished as per law of the land.

45 people were arrested as clashes rocked Ram Navami celebrations in  neighbouring Howrah district on Thursday and Friday.

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West Bengal BJP chief Sukanta Majumdar was arrested on Saturday while travelling to violence-hit Howrah.

Reports said Majumdar was detained at Second Hooghly Bridge. The violence in the state erupted following the derogatory remark against Prophet Muhammad by the BJP leader Nupur Sharma. The BJP chief claimed that police erected barricades outside his residence in New Town as he was getting ready to leave from Howrah.

Following massive violence in the state, chief minister Mamata Banerjee has warned of strict action and said there are some political parties behind who want to cause riots but these things will not be tolerated and stern action will be taken against all of them involved.

As per reports, violence erupted from Panchla in Howrah district where protestors clashed with police. It is said that protestors hurled bricks and police retaliated with tear gas shells to disperse the violence.

On Friday, the BJP office in Howrah rural was set ablaze. Following the violence, internet services have been suspended across the district till June 13 and prohibitory orders under Section 144 of CrPC were also imposed in areas like Domjur, Uluberia, and Panchla till June 15.

Massive protests erupted in several states over Nupur Sharma’s remarks on Prophet Muhammad and his wife during a TV debate. States like Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Telangana, and West Bengal witnessed massive violence injuring many.

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Amidst the controversy surrounding Union Minister Narayan Rane’s slap remark, a new plethora of pejorative comments are coming to the limelight nearly every day now. Recently, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut on Thursday hit back at N Rane’s remark that he won’t allow Maharashtra to become West Bengal. Raut, in response to Rane said that West Bengal is the Tiger of the country and BJP should not forget that it is the same Bengal that gave them (BJP) a defeat.

In a press conference on Thursday, Sanjay Raut said that what does N Rane mean by Maharashtra is like Bengal. He further said that it is the same Bengal that showed BJP what a big defeat is. Raut concluded by saying that Bengal is a land of fighters and thinkers, so is Maharashtra, just like Bengal fought back, so will Maharashtra. He also said that West Bengal is the Tiger of India.

What is the Narayan Rane and Uddhav Thackeray controversy?

Union Minister Narayan Rane sparked off a row on Sunday during his address at the Jan Ashirwada Yatra in which he said that it is so shameful that the Chief Minister does not remember the year of Independence. He further said that if he was there, he would’ve slapped him.

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After this, the Sena workers got agitated and they filed three FIRs against him. Later, Rane was arrested. However, he got bail after eight hours of being arrested.

Meanwhile, after Rane’s release, he addressed the media on August 24 in which he said that the BJP will not allow Maharashtra to become West Bengal and will not let happen the type of violence that took place in West Bengal here in Maharashtra. He concluded by saying that the Sena workers do not have the guts to beat up the BJP workers, the only thing they can do is pelt stones from a distance.

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Ever since results of the West Bengal Assembly election were announced on Sunday, social media has been agog with images and videos of alleged violence in the state. Most of these are from either BJP party workers or journalists sympathetic to the party.

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The startling fact is that most of these have been debunked by West Bengal Police or other state authorities as being fake and only promoting a one-sided narrative that suits the BJP. It must be remembered that the BJP won 77 of the 292 seats that went in for election, despite its high-voltage, high-expenditure campaign that was shattered by the Trinamool Congress, which won 213 seats.

But the IT-savvy cannot be dissuaded and promoted and pushed fake old videos, old photos and unrelated tweets to build the case for the Centre to bring the Mamata Banerjee-led government to heel by measures such as Article 356 which can be invoked citing law and order conditions.

Among the many grainy videos shared out of concern for Bengal and BJP party workers, there is a fake video where a mob can be vandalizing a police van and chasing officers.

The video seems to have been shot in January this year when an angry group attacked a police van and chased a policeman over the death of a youngster who was allegedly framed in a crime, said an Altnews report.

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Another video shared by BJP’s West Bengal General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya blamed Muslims. It said, TMC Muslim goons are beating up BJP workers in Nandigram.

Reports said the video shared by Vijayvargiya was fake and it was related to a personal dispute and had nothing to do with post-poll violence.

There is also fake news being spread of a gangrape of a woman BJP worker by Trinamool Congress workers at Birbhum’s Nanoor.

Election Commission-appointed Birbhum SP Nagendra Tripathi told media that the reports of a gangrape in Birbhum are fake.

In another video shared by BJP’s Mahila Morcha social media national in-charge, Priti Gandhi, people can be seen dancing with swords to the TMC poll song Khela Hobe playing in the background.

CID West Bengal investigated the video and said the video is fake. CID West Bengal appealed to people not to spread fake videos which is not related to the current situation.

Was there no violence at all?

There was violence. Yes, people from both TMC and BJP were involved in attacks on each other. Some CPM leader were also attacked and key CPM activists were killed.

In Purba Bardhaman, 4 people were killed in clashes between the TMC and the BJP. The incident took place when motorcycle-borne TMC supporters were going to Nabagram when they were attacked by BJP workers in Jamalpur police station limits.

Two were declared brought dead by Burdwan Medical College and Hospital when rushed there. On this, the TMC said four people were killed, of whom 3 were TMC supporters.

A local BJP leader blamed TMC supporters for causing the violence since they were raising slogans and jeering BJP workers. Police said 23 people were detained and a security blanket has been imposed in troublesome areas.

TMC supporters were also being accused of vandalising the homes and shops of BJP workers in various parts of Galsi.

BJP leader and General Secretary, Jharkhand, Dr Pradip Varma, shared a video burning BJP office in West Bengal. He said wining and loosing happens, burning BJP office shows the mentality of TMC.

What did Mamata Banerjee say?

Trinamool supremo Mamata Banerjee rejected all the allegation by the BJP. She said after West Bengal election results were announced, many BJP workers and supporters have attacked TMC workers, but we asked our men not to get provoked by their act and instead report to the police, Mamata said. She has appealed to the people to maintain peace and calm, and asked them not to fall prey to provocation.

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The BJP is, however, not going to rest and will continue to organize nationwide protests to highlight the violent nature of the West Bengal government, said party leaders.

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