A Trinamul worker was found murdered in West Midnapore’s Narayangarh on Sunday night amid claims by his family and party colleagues that the killing was the handiwork of BJP workers.

Police sources said Dipak Bhuniya, 42, alias Ganesh, had left home at Chak Kishor village on his motorcycle after receiving a call from an unknown person around 10pm on Sunday. Some local people found his blood-soaked body near a jungle, about 6km from his home, around 4am on Monday and informed the family.

As the incident happened within 24 hours of suspected Trinamul workers shooting at a BJP functionary in nearby Jhargram, the twin incidents underscored the Trinamul-BJP turf war in Jungle Mahal where the BJP won all four Lok Sabha seats.

“There is an intense turf war going on between the two parties and the murder seems to be a fallout of that,” said a senior police officer.

On Saturday night, a BJP worker Khagapati Mahato, 22, was shot at in Jhargram’s Jamboni, which the BJP alleged was a Trinamul attack while he was attending a religious programme. The youth was referred to the SSKM Hospital in Calcutta after doctors removed the bullet at Midnapore Medical College and Hospital.

The fact that the turf war is not limited to Jungle Mahal becomes clear as the murder of Dipak came close on the heels of the daylight murder of Trinamul leader Dilip Ram at Bandel railway station. The ruling party had accused the BJP of plotting the murder of Dilip, husband of the chief of the panchayat in Bandel.

In case of the Narayangarh murder, the local Trinamul leaders have said, Dipak was led into a trap and killed.

“He left home after receiving the call from an unknown person. He did not answer when we asked him where he was going so late into the night,” said Bidyutlata, deceased’s wife. “My husband was targeted by the local BJP workers since the election results were out. He was repeatedly getting threats. They had told him to stop working for Trinamul. They have murdered him,” she added.

Trinamul leaders in Narayangarh also said that the BJP workers were forcing Dipak to withdraw the complaint he had lodged against some BJP workers for beating up his brother in May.

“Local BJP workers were putting pressure on him to withdraw the complaint against them which he refused and the murder was the fallout of that,” said Surya Atta, Trinamul vice-president in West Midnapore.

As the news spread, local people including Trinamul workers assembled at the spot, where his dead body was found, and started agitating. They refused to lift the body and gheraoed policemen when they arrived. They alleged that BJP workers beat up Trinamul workers and ransacked their homes in the area since the general election results declared in May but police did not take any action.

Andal assault

In West Burdwan’s Andal, a BJP worker was beaten up by alleged Trinamul workers led by a gram panchayat functionary, Ananta Ghosh, on Sunday night.