On Friday (14th June), a video of a woman narrating the atrocities committed by Trinamool Congress (TMC) goons on BJP workers went viral on social media.
The video was shared on X (formerly Twitter) by political commentator Abhijit Majumder. In the video, a Hindu woman was heard saying in Bengali, “My husband was a polling agent of the BJP. They had also filed a case (fabricated) against my husband.”
“He has been missing since yesterday. The men in the village are not at their homes. They have been hunted down by TMC goons and beaten mercilessly,” she further added.
“My husband was BJP’s polling agent. He is missing.
— Abhijit Majumder (@abhijitmajumder) June 14, 2024
“They beat up our men so badly they will be crippled for life.
“We are cut off from bare necessities, our children are starving.
“TMC moles in our village are ratting out BJP workers to the goons.
“We plead Mamata Banerjee to… pic.twitter.com/oWzSeq2eSr
“Those who had to bear this will be crippled for life. The men were brutally thrashed and stomped on the ground,” the woman pointed out.
She emphasised, “Please ensure that our message reaches Mamata Banerjee – Give us poison (bish) so that we can die peacefully. Else abduct all of us. We do not want to live anymore,”
“We have infants at our house. There is no food at our house. We cannot go to the market and put rice in the mouths of our children,” the woman continued.
“What is the purpose of our existence? It is better that we die,” she said while crying inconsolably. Another woman informed that the local police have been working as TMC moles and outing the addresses of BJP workers.
At the time of writing, the video posted by Abhijit Majumder has been retweeted 2.1K times and liked by 3.1K users on X (formerly Twitter).
The origin of the viral video
OpIndia found that the video was originally posted on the YouTube channel of TV9 Bangla on 3rd June 2024. The woman seen in the victim is from Sandeshkhali village in North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal.
When the date is matched with the testimony of the victim, it becomes clear that her husband had been missing from 2nd June this year. Interestingly, the last phase of Lok Sabha elections in West Bengal was held on 1st June 2024.
The whereabouts of the woman’s husband, who happened to be the polling agent of the BJP, remains unknown.
BJP workers in West Bengal flee homes after Lok Sabha elections
Following the Lok Sabha elections in West Bengal, hundreds of BJP workers have fled their villages and homes – a grim situation reminiscent of the 2021 Vidhan Sabha elections and 2023 Panchayat election in the State.
The development was confirmed in a report, published by The Indian Express on Saturday (8th June). While speaking about the matter, a BJP worker named Prasanta Haldar informed, “Election season mane amader ghor chharar season (election season for us means the season of leaving home).”
A resident of Vidyadhar Palli area of Baruipur, Haldar and his family fled home after casting their vote during the 7th phase of Lok Sabha elections. He had sent his wife and children to a relative’s house.
In the meantime, he has sought refuge along with 50 others at the BJP office in Baruipur. Haldar told The Indian Express, “I was forced to leave home in 2021 after the Assembly polls, and then after panchayat polls last year.”
“I was able to get back home in April this year, but now once again, I am homeless. Me and other workers from my village got threats before the Lok Sabha polls, but I still worked for the party. However, on June 2, after the last phase of polls, I left home. I later heard that my home was ransacked,” the BJP worker lamented.
On 6th June, the Calcutta High Court rapped the Mamata Banerjee-led- Trinamool Congress government over post-poll violence in West Bengal.
