New Delhi: At least 12 people have been killed in post-poll violence in West Bengal, prompting the Indian Home Ministry to seek a report from the eastern state’s administration.
Mamata Banerjee has called for calm though she has blamed the BJP for the violence. The BJP, led by president JP Nadda who is arriving in Kolkata on Tuesday, will hold a day-long protest across the country tomorrow. Mamata, affectionately called Didi, is slated to take her oath as Bengal’s chief minister for the third time on the same day.
The Indian Home Ministry has sought a report from the state. Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar, who met BJP state chief Dilip Ghosh around 5 pm on Monday and Mamata Banerjee later in the evening for an hour, discussed the eruption of violence with her and called for a report from the state authorities.
The BJP has claimed at least six party workers were killed and scores of homes of supporters and party offices attacked, vandalised and set on fire across Bengal, from Sitalkuchi in the north to Kolkata in the south.
The Trinamool Congress has claimed five supporters were killed, of those three in East Burdwan, one in Hooghly.
Bucking anti-incumbency, Mamata scripted history on Sunday by single handedly pulling off an astounding victory in the assembly election. She not only staved off a massive challenge from India’s ruling BJP but also decimated the Left Front.
Though her party swept back to power with a resounding majority of 213 seats in the 292-member assembly, the 66-year-old lost her own seat in Nandigram to her former protege-turned-rival Suvendu Adhikari by a thin margin of around 2,000 votes.
Mamata, however, made it clear in a press conference on Sunday itself that she would challenge the result in a court of law. “How come the Election Commission reverse the results in Nandigram after formally announcing it? We will move court.”
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