Five days after the results of the West Bengal Assembly polls were declared, post-poll violence in the State continued on Friday, with supporters of both the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Trinamool Congress (TMC) bearing the brunt of the violence.
The elected MLAs of the BJP have decided to boycott Assembly proceedings until the violence subsides. Earlier in the day, a four-member team of the Union Home Ministry, which is in the State to take stock of the law and order situation, met Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar.
File affidavit: HC to State
In another development, the Calcutta High Court directed the State government to file an affidavit on the post-poll violence. The court was hearing a public interest litigation in connection with the violence. The court directed State Advocate General Kishore Dutta to specify in the affidavit the names of areas where violence had broken out, and the steps taken to prevent or control it.
Overnight violence was reported in places like Deganaga in North 24 Parganas district, where houses of TMC supporters were ransacked allegedly by supporters of the Indian Secular Front. At Barasat, supporters of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad were targeted.
There were reports of shops and commercial establishments of BJP supporters being vandalised in Durgapur in Paschim Bardhaman district. The BJP MP from Hooghly, Locket Chatterjee, also faced protests when she visited Dhanekhali.