Post-election violence in West Bengal leaves three dead, hundreds arrested

Three people were killed and hundreds were arrested as post-election violence spread across West Bengal, from Kolkata and Howrah to Murshidabad, Malda, Birbhum and Siliguri, turning the BJP’s victory into a raw contest over who could claim the mandate.

The Bharatiya Janata Party won 207 of 294 seats in the state assembly after a two-phase vote on April 23 and 29, ending Mamata Banerjee’s grip on power that had lasted since 2011. Banerjee refused to step aside, saying she had “not been defeated” and accusing the Election Commission of colluding with the BJP, a charge that deepened the sense that the fight would continue after the ballots were counted.

Police chief Sidd Nath Gupta said more than 200 criminal cases had been registered and 433 people arrested, while another 1,100 were placed under preventive detention. The Election Commission ordered authorities to arrest those responsible and keep continuous patrolling in sensitive areas, after reports of shootings, arson and attacks on party offices across North and South 24 Parganas, Madhyamgram, Kamarhati, Baruipur and Beliaghata.

Among the dead was Chandranath Rath, identified as the aide to BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari. Local reports also said a BJP activist was killed in Howrah and a Trinamool Congress worker was found dead in Kolkata’s Beliaghata area. In Nazat, North 24 Parganas, an officer-in-charge and a woman constable were shot during a clash, underscoring how quickly party rivalry spilled into direct attacks on police as well as civilians.

The blame game hardened almost immediately. The BJP accused the Trinamool Congress of carrying out “targeted assassinations,” while the TMC condemned the unrest as the work of “BJP-backed miscreants.” That mutual accusation matters because it shows how violence after voting can serve political ends even when it tears at public trust: each side presents itself as the victim, each side turns disorder into proof of the other’s illegitimacy, and law enforcement is left trying to restore order in a polarized climate.

West Bengal’s political history explains why the latest killings drew such alarm. About a dozen people were killed in post-poll clashes in 2021, and broader election-violence data have repeatedly placed the state at the top among large Indian states over the past decade. The pattern points to a deeper problem than one disputed result: when intimidation survives the count, democracy at the local level becomes a contest over force as much as votes.