On May 2nd last year, Mamata Banerjee-led-Trinamool Congress (TMC) returned to power in West Bengal by winning 215 of the total 294 Vidhan Sabha seats. Following TMC’s thumping victory, Bengal saw an orgy of violence in the State as the main opposition party BJP’s workers were brutally targeted across the state.
More than a dozen BJP workers lost their lives in the post-poll violence that ensued in the state following the victory of the TMC party in the assembly elections. On the first anniversary of TMC’s return to power, BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari shared disturbing visuals of TMC workers attacking the saffron party members to mark the occasion.
“Today marks the 1st year of unabated violence unleashed on @BJP4Bengal Karyakartas & their families as the Bidhan Sabha results were announced. Poor innocent Sanatanis across WB were targeted. Women raped & molested. Homes burnt. People killed. Lakhs fled to save themselves,” he tweeted.
Today marks the 1st year of unabated violence unleashed on @BJP4Bengal Karyakartas & their families as the Bidhan Sabha results were announced.
— Suvendu Adhikari • শুভেন্দু অধিকারী (@SuvenduWB) May 2, 2022
Poor innocent Sanatanis across WB were targeted. Women raped & molested. Homes burnt. People killed. Lakhs fled to save themselves.
Sharing one of the videos of the violence against BJP workers, he added, “WB, from this very day became a happy hunting ground of @AITCofficial criminals & goons who led violent mobs to rob the houses of voters whom they suspected to be BJP voters. Their shops were looted & properties destroyed. Bengal had been scarred & the injuries are still fresh.”
— Suvendu Adhikari • শুভেন্দু অধিকারী (@SuvenduWB) May 2, 2022
In visuals shared by Adhikari, a mob of TMC workers could be seen ambushing a BJP booth worker. They were seen dragging BJP members out and brutally thrashing them. In another video, unidentified men could be seen hurling crude bombs from atop the roofs of their houses.
— Suvendu Adhikari • শুভেন্দু অধিকারী (@SuvenduWB) May 2, 2022
Videos shared by Adhikari exposed the grim reality of the violence that followed TMC’s return to power in the State of West Bengal.
— Suvendu Adhikari • শুভেন্দু অধিকারী (@SuvenduWB) May 2, 2022
In most such incidents, the victims were BJP supporters and workers while the accused were the supporters of the ruling Trinamool Congress.
— Suvendu Adhikari • শুভেন্দু অধিকারী (@SuvenduWB) May 2, 2022
The use of strategic violence was one of the key strategies employed by the TMC, to intimidate the opposition ground-level party workers into silence, and it seems to have worked.
— Suvendu Adhikari • শুভেন্দু অধিকারী (@SuvenduWB) May 2, 2022
In March this year, the Calcutta High Court granted police protection to 303 victims of the West Bengal post-poll violence. The decision was made after petitioner Priyanka Tibrewal informed the court that the victims were being constantly threatened by local TMC goons and that the cops were reluctant to take action against the perpetrators.
— Suvendu Adhikari • শুভেন্দু অধিকারী (@SuvenduWB) May 2, 2022
OpIndia recently reached out to some of the victims of the violence and spoke to them about their horrific experiences, which they claim were overtly sponsored by West Bengal’s state machinery. Listening to their anguish, the amount of pain these people went through, and are currently going through in West Bengal was evident.
While speaking, all of the victims attributed the entire series of violence to Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress, stating that their only fault was that they were affiliated with the Bharatiya Janata Party. Throughout the talk, they all said unambiguously that being a BJP voter is a crime in Bengal and being a BJP Party Worker is an absolute sin. It is just by offering one’s life, that one is absolved of this sin in Bengal.
