Burdwan, Dec. 29: A Trinamul Congress leader of Mangalkot, where the party has been locked in a turf war with the CPM, was arrested today allegedly while escorting a car laden with 40kg of “bomb-making material”.

Police said Golam Ghaus, Trinamul’s Mangalkot block secretary, was on a motorbike. Three others, all known Trinamul activists, were in the car.

“When they reached the approach to Chaitanyapur village in Mangalkot, we stopped them. We searched the car and found the bomb-making material,” a police officer said. He could not say what the material, identified as “bomb-making” on the seizure list, was.

The owner of the car, Moyna Sheikh, was at the wheel. Dablu Sheikh and Jadab Ghosh, both wanted in connection with clashes in Birbhum’s Nanoor, were the others in the car.

The police later held Lalu Sheikh, for whose house they were allegedly headed.

Trinamul MLA Swapan Debnath accused the CPM of planting the “explosives”.

Mangalkok OC G.P. Sau said Mamata Banerjee’s party could be stockpiling arms and ammunition for the elections to seven schools in January.