BJP workers clashed at two places on Sunday in a manifestation of the intensifying power struggle in the state unit between old-timers and those who had joined the party recently.

At Baruipur in South 24-Parganas, old-time BJP workers agitated in front of the car of Anupam Hazra — former Trinamul MP from Bolpur who had defected to the saffron camp last year and then contested from the seat unsuccessfully.

The car was blocked when Hazra, who was made a national secretary of the BJP on Saturday, was leaving after attending a BJP meeting. He got off the car and sought to pacify the agitators.

Hazra left the venue and soon after, old-time BJP workers and new comers fought with each other in the presence of the party’s Baruipur unit chief Harikrishna Datta.

Sources said the old-timers’ lobby got infuriated at Hazra being invited. “The old-timers attacked while a meeting was being conducted. They beat up at least seven party workers and one of them had to be hospitalised,” said a district committee member.

On Saturday, BJP veteran Rahul Sinha had publicly made his bitterness clear over his exclusion from the national leadership.

On Sunday, a clash occurred at Basirhat in North 24-Parganas when a group of BJP activists led by its local youth wing secretary Mrityunjay Sinha and former organising committee chief Ganesh Ghosh barged into a community hall where a party meeting was about to begin. Hundreds of chairs were smashed in the clash.

State BJP general-secretary Sayantan Basu said such clashes were “not uncommon” when the party was expanding.

Additional reporting by Arkamoy Datta Majumdar