On Monday morning, fresh reports of arson emerged from Khejuri, the second such incident in as many nights. The BJP called it an electrical fault. The TMC called it arson. The competing versions have continued to sound the same – in the days after Suvendu Adhikari was sworn in as the state’s new chief minister – as before.

West Bengal has been burning since the BJP swept to power on May 4. The violence has taken many forms: shops gutted, political workers killed, clubs ransacked, statues smashed, and a bulldozer brought in to flatten a party office in central Kolkata. The Trinamool Congress claims six of its workers have been killed. Adhikari’s personal assistant was shot dead last week. The BJP also says its two supporters were targeted in Howrah and New Town. 

There is no official number yet for the casualties after May 6; the police had last pegged the number at two. Police have registered 200 FIRs, arrested 433 people, and detained 1,100 more under preventive measures. Five hundred companies of Central Armed Police Forces remain deployed across the state.

The fires near Khejuri

Late on May 9, roughly 125 kilometres from Kolkata, violence broke out within 12 hours of Adhikari being sworn in at Kolkata’s Brigade Parade Ground. 

In a village panchayat near Khejuri, around 60 shops were set on fire. Locals and opposition TMC leaders alleged that the attackers were BJP-backed goons. By Sunday afternoon, videos showing rows of scorched shops near the Hijli Mazar Sea Bridge, a popular tourist stretch, were circulating on social media. The TMC leadership accused the BJP of orchestrating the arson, saying that it had wiped out the livelihoods of shop owners across religious divides.

“The districts of Bengal continue to burn in the fire of post-poll violence,” Saayoni Ghosh, a TMC member of parliament, wrote on social media.

Didar Ali, a TMC member of the Nich Kasba panchayat in Khejuri, claimed the attack was preceded by open intimidation. “We don’t know how exactly this happened or who did it,” he told Newslaundry. “But BJP workers had gone around telling people to keep their shops closed. They said they would do whatever they pleased,” he claimed.

The fires broke out at around 11 pm. Some shop owners who sleep near their establishments woke up to the glow of flames and raised the alarm. The shops burned through the night.

Fear, Ali said, now hangs heavy over the area. He claimed BJP workers are threatening TMC workers to withdraw cases against them.

A TMC worker claimed he was assaulted by a BJP panchayat leader and told to withdraw one case he had filed against him, refusing to elaborate further.

Subrata Paik, the local BJP legislator, said the law would take its course, regardless of political affiliations of the people involved. He also rejected allegations of party involvement in the fires, suggesting instead that an electrical short circuit may have caused the blaze. The arson claims, he said, were an attempt to malign the BJP in the aftermath of its victory in the state. The West Bengal Police have similarly dismissed claims of political violence, calling the electrical short circuit explanation the most likely cause.

In a press conference on post-poll violence on May 6, the Acting Director General of Police, Siddh Nath Gupta, admitted that incidents of violence had occurred, including threats, assaults and intimidation. The police have registered 200 FIRs, arrested 433 and detained 1,100 people under preventive measures.

Subrata Paik, the local BJP legislator, said the law would take its course, regardless of political affiliations of the people involved. He also rejected allegations of party involvement in the fires, suggesting instead that an electrical short circuit may have caused the blaze. The arson claims, he said, were an attempt to malign the BJP in the aftermath of its victory in the state. The West Bengal........

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