At least three political workers were allegedly killed and several others injured in a spate of post-poll clashes that erupted across Bengal within hours of the Assembly election results being declared on Monday, despite repeated appeals from the BJP leadership to maintain peace in an already surcharged atmosphere.

The BJP’s landslide victory appears to have triggered a chain reaction on the ground. Hubilant BJP supporters clashed with Trinamool Congress workers, assaulted rivals, vandalised Trinamool offices, locked civic body premises and, in several instances, hoisted BJP flags in an apparent show of territorial assertion.

BJP state president Samik Bhattacharya told party leaders across the state that there should be no post-poll violence. He personally spoke to several leaders and instructed them not to induct any Trinamool worker or leader into the BJP at any cost.

“BJP workers are not involved in these acts of violence. I have received some inputs suggesting that rival groups within the TMC have been using BJP flags to settle personal scores because of internal acrimony. We will not tolerate this. I have urged the chief secretary, Dushyant Nariala, to take immediate action, and the police should arrest all those involved in the violence irrespective of political affiliation,” Bhattacharya told The Telegraph.

“If any of our party workers or leaders are involved in this violence, we will suspend them immediately. We want to put an end to the culture of political violence in Bengal,” he added.

Multiple BJP MLAs visited Trinamool offices and the homes of rival party workers to prevent untoward incidents.

Jagannath Chattopadhyay, who won from Birbhum’s Suri and is also a state vice-president, went to many places and assured people that no one from the BJP would be involved in any such incident.

In Suri, he instructed the police to take immediate action even if BJP workers were found assembling near Trinamool offices.

At Debipur near Udaynarayanpur in Howrah, a BJP activist, Jadab Bar, 45, was allegedly beaten to death on Monday night.

Local BJP leaders claimed that Bar was targeted for his active role during the Assembly polls. According to local and police sources, Bar had attended a picnic to celebrate the party’s victory and returned home late at night, only to be called out again by some individuals. He was then allegedly attacked with iron rods.

Bar was rushed to Udaynarayanpur State General Hospital, where he was declared dead.

BJP leader Prasanta De said: “Bar’s family members told us that he was attacked for his association with the BJP.”

At New Town in North 24-Parganas, BJP worker Madhu Mondal was allegedly killed by his rival.

“Mondal was a BJP worker, and Trinamool goons killed him for helping the BJP win the support of voters in the locality,” a family member of the victim said.

A Trinamool supporter, Abir Sheikh, was killed by alleged BJP activists at Nanoor in Birbhum on Tuesday. Trinamool blamed the BJP for the murder, a charge denied by
the BJP..

Violence also flared up in Bhangar, where houses of Trinamool supporters were allegedly vandalised by Indian Secular Front (ISF) activists following the victory of Nawsad Siddique.

Trinamool leaders alleged that ISF supporters unleashed a night of terror, attacking Trinamool workers and their families.

Defeated Trinamool candidate Saokat Molla claimed that even women and elderly persons were not spared. On Tuesday morning, ISF supporters allegedly attacked family members and vandalised the house of Trinamool supporter Firoz Molla after he refused to remove a party flag from his residence.

“They did not spare my ailing elderly father, who had to be shifted to a city-based hospital”, Firoz said.

In Behrampore’s Chuanpur-Kadamtala Battala area, the residence of Trinamool leader Biplab Kundu was allegedly vandalised when a BJP victory rally passed through the locality. His motorcycle was also damaged.

Amid the violence, a contrasting picture emerged from Bhatar, where newly elected BJP MLA Soumen Karfa was seen moving across his constituency with a public address system, urging people to maintain peace and harmony and specifically appealing to his party workers to refrain from retaliatory actions.

New BJP MLAs, Manab Guha from Memari and Jagannath Chattopadhyay from Suri, also issued similar appeals. The two asked police to take strict action against those involved in vandalism, while urging restraint among supporters.

Incidents of Trinamool offices being grabbed by BJP supporters were reported from West Burdwan, Purulia and Bankura.

“Our party offices were attacked and captured in the presence of the police in several areas in my district. The police, central security forces and the Election Commission remained mute spectators. They have captured Bengal immorally, and now our offices are being targeted,” said Narendranath Chakraborty, the West Burdwan district president of Trinamool.

Chakraborty, who contested unsuccessfully from Pandaveswar and was defeated by BJP’s Jitendra Tiwari, was greeted with “chor chor” slogans by BJP activists since the results were declared.

The BJP workers led by two newly elected MLAs, Chandrasekhar Banerjee from Durgapur East and Lakkhan Ghorui from Durgapur West, on Tuesday virtually took control of the Durgapur Municipal Corporation run by a board of administrators.

They replaced the Trinamool flag with the BJP flag atop the civic body office and demanded the immediate resignation of the
administrators.

“The Trinamool leaders working as administrators have no right to continue as the government has changed. Their party is no longer in power. They will have to resign,” said Ghorui.

The BJP MLAs also interacted with the municipality commissioner and demanded the same.

Apart from the civic body, the saffron brigade also alleged that the Trinamool Congress-run Asansol Durgapur Development Authority (ADDA) did several malpractices related to land
allotments.

The chairman of the ADDA, Kabi Dutta, who contested unsuccessfully from Durgapur West, was greeted with “chor chor” slogans by the BJP activists.

“We are apprehensive that Kabi Dutta and his men will remove important files. During his tenure, he had grabbed people’s land and was also involved in malpractices. We will keep vigil until we take control of ADDA officially,” said Chandrasekhar.

Trinamool workers complained that they were beaten up by BJP activists in several places. “We are unable to get out of our homes as BJP workers are harassing us by shouting chor chor slogans. We are living in fear,” said a Trinamool Congress leader in Purulia.

Additional reporting by Snehamoy Chakraborty