BJP’s 12-hour bandh in Bengal’s Howrah today over party worker’s murder

The saffron leadership alleged that Kinkar Majhi was killed by the Trinamool Congress for political reasons, a charge denied by the ruling party.

Howrah: The BJP has called a 12-hour bandh in Bagnan assembly constituency in West Bengal on Thursday in protest against the murder of Kinkar Majhi, a party worker of that area.

The saffron party had on Wednesday put up a blockade on a national highway in West Bengal's Howrah district to protest against the murder of a party worker; The saffron leadership alleged that he was killed by the Trinamool Congress for political reasons, a charge denied by the ruling party.

The police said that Majhi was shot near his home in Bagnan on October 24 in connection with a land dispute and he succumbed at a Kolkata hospital. One of the two persons involved in the killing was arrested.

Claiming that Majhi, a flower trader, was gunned down by Trinamool Congress sheltered goons to decimate the BJP's "growing influence" in the area, local saffron party activists blocked the NH-16 at Mansatala area placing burning tyres on the highway.

They later lifted the blockade at the intervention of SDPO, Uluberia.

Howrah Rural District BJP unit president Sibshankar Bej, who also led a demonstration before Bagnan police station, demanded that those named in the FIR by the wife of the deceased be arrested.

State party general secretary Sayantan Basu said that the party would hold a sit-in to protest against the "murder of party activists" in the state. TMC MLA of Bagnan, Arunava Sen, alleged that the BJP is trying to foment disturbances in the state and playing politics over bodies.

Sen claimed that the killing was related to a property dispute and had no relation to politics.