One killed, 5 hurt as ‘bomb’ goes off in TMC office

At least one person was killed and five others were severely injured when a suspected bomb went off inside a Trinamool Congress party office at Narayangarh in West Midnapore district, 150 km off Kolkata, police said.

One side of the single-storey building collapsed due to the impact of the blast, eye-witness said adding five persons who were critically injured had been rushed to Kolkata.

While, local MLA Pradyut Ghosh said the reason of the blast was not yet known as the police were still conducting operation in the area opposition BJP and the Left claimed bombs stored by the TMC goons for use against the opposition during the panchayat elections had accidentally gone off leading to the death of one of its party members.

The local TMC sources however said it could be a gas cylinder that had exploded.

“They did it earlier also in Birbhum and Burdwan where TMC-made bombs went off killing people. Now it is the turn of Narayangarh,” said CPI(M) leader Sujan Chakrbarty. Narayangarh had been a traditional Left stronghold retained for decades by CPI(M) politburo member Suryakanto Mishra. He was however defeated in 2016 elections.

The police remained tightlipped on whether there was any subversive angle to Thursday’s incident as the area falling in Jangalmahal has been a stronghold of the Maoists too.