BJP aide shot dead in Bengal amid tension after severe poll-rigging allegations
Kolkata: Tension prevailed in India’s West Bengal after motorbike-borne gunmen ambushed and killed a political aide of the ruling BJP, days after the party’s sweeping win in state elections, police said Thursday.
According to Kashmir Media Service, severe allegations of rigging have emerged following the polls, with the BJP taking 207 of the 294 assembly seats on Monday for its first-ever state victory in West Bengal, amid claims from opponents that over 100 seats were “stolen.”
Chandranath Rath, 41, a close aide of West Bengal’s BJP chief Suvendu Adhikari was shot dead late on Wednesday near his home in Kolkata.
Adhikari, the leader of the opposition in the state assembly, now tipped to become the state chief minister, called it “cold-blooded murder”.
Motorbikes blocked Rath’s vehicle, before the attackers opened fire in a barrage of around a dozen shots, hitting Rath multiple times in the heart.“The shooting happened at about 11 pm on Wednesday — the bikes that stopped Rath’s car have been seized,” West Bengal police chief Siddh Nath Gupta told the media. “The bikes had fake registration numbers, and we are looking for the assailants.”
Pritam Sengupta, a doctor at Apollo Hospital said that Rath was “brought dead with multiple bullet injuries in his chest.” The killing brings the total killed since the results were announced on Monday to at least five.
West Bengal had been ruled by Modi’s fierce critic and adversary, Mamata Banerjee, as chief minister since 2011.
Banerjee, leader of the regional All India Trinamool Congress (TMC), also lost her seat in the polls and has rejected the results.
The killing has added to political tensions in the state, with the BJP and TMC trading accusations over the deaths since the results.“It was a planned murder,” BJP’s West Bengal president Samik Bhattacharya said.“This is expected from Trinamool Congress,” he alleged. “They are responsible for this death”.
The TMC rejected any role in the shooting, but accused the BJP of targeting their supporters.
