BJP Fact-finding Team Visits Violence-hit Bengal Areas; TMC Asks it to Visit Manipur – News18

A ‘fact-finding team’ of the BJP on Monday visited violence-hit areas in West Bengal’s Howrah district, accusing the TMC of unleashing terror in the state, prompting a sharp retort from the ruling camp, asking it to send teams to saffron party ruled Manipur, which is affected by ethnic violence.

A five-member team led by BJP MP Vinod Sonkar visited parts of Amta in Howrah district.

“We met victims of violence (during panchayat elections). Even women were not spared by the goons of the TMC. The law and order situation has completely collapsed in the state. West Bengal is the only state where so many people got killed during panchayat polls,” he said.

The team members spoke to people who claimed to have been at the receiving end of atrocities of the Trinamool Congress activists.

“Even after elections are over, people are being killed or threatened. They are being rendered homeless. There is no respite from violence,” he said.

The ruling TMC, however, dubbed the visit of the fact-finding team as a “diversionary tactic” from the Manipur violence.

Since the results were announced on July 11, in which TMC secured a resounding victory, this is the third fact-finding committee of the BJP to visit the state.

“They are sending fact-finding teams here. Why is the BJP not sending a fact-finding team to Manipur, where so many people have been killed in the last two months? The BJP government has completely failed to maintain the law and order situation in the northeastern state,” TMC state vice-president Jai Prakash Majumdar said.

The violence, which rocked the panchayat polls, had claimed at least 15 lives on the polling day, while three more were murdered on July 12 when the counting process was on.

Since elections were announced on June 8, at least 38 people have lost their lives in poll-related violence, with the ruling party suffering 60 per cent of the deaths, police said.

(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – PTI)