Lok Sabha Elections 2024 | TMC leader killed in Bengal's Tamluk night before sixth phase of polling

Kolkata: After a man was murdered at Mahishadal in the Purba Medinipur district of West Bengal on Friday, the Trinamool Congress claimed that the deceased had been a worker of the party and was been killed by the miscreants owing allegiance to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to intimidate voters.

Moibul Sheikh, 42, was murdered in Mahishadal in the Tamluk Lok Sabha constituency, where polling was under way along with seven others in West Bengal on Saturday.

Sheikh was attacked while returning home late in the evening on Friday. TMC MLA Tilak Chakraborty alleged that a gang of BJP’s goons attacked Sheikh—a local leader of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s party—and his two other aides with sharp-edged weapons.

While his aides managed to flee, Sheikh was fatally assaulted, and was found in a pool of blood on the side of the road hours later. He was taken to a hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.

The incident took place just a couple of days after the killing of the mother of a local BJP leader at Sonachura in Nandigram in the same Tamluk Lok Sabha constituency of the state, allegedly by TMC goons, which triggered large-scale protests, with several houses and shops being set ablaze, roads blocked, and markets shut down, leading to police action against agitating mobs.

Tamluk and the neighbouring Kanthi, Ghatal, and Medinipur Lok Sabha constituencies are believed to be the political fiefdom of Suvendu Adhikari, the state BJP heavyweight and the Leader of Opposition in the state assembly. The BJP has fielded former Calcutta High Court judge Abhijit Ganguly in Tamluk against TMC’s Debangshu Bhattacharya.