West Bengal election: Hundreds arrested as post-poll violence grips Indian state

Hundreds of people have been arrested in the Indian border state of West Bengal after at least five people were killed in post-election violence.

State-wide violence and vandalism ensued on 4 March after prime minister Narendra Modi‘s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) tore through the liberal wall of Bengal to secure a historic victory.

The BJP defeated the incumbent chief minister, Mamata Banerjee, in a victory that further consolidated the saffron party’s power ahead of the next general elections. Ms Banerjee, a fierce critic of Mr Modi, had been the chief minister of the state since 2011.

Suvendu Adhikari, a former confidant of Ms Banerjee, was sworn in as the new chief minister on Saturday in the presence of Mr Modi in Kolkata.

One of Mr Adhikari’s aides was among those killed earlier this week, shot dead by gunmen on a motorcycle. Mr Adhikari said the BJP was “shocked, pained and hurt” by the death of Chandranath Rath and that he was killed “because I defeated Mamata”.

Clashes between Ms Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC) and BJP supporters erupted in the state capital, Kolkata, and elsewhere in the state shortly after the results were declared on Monday. The situation worsened after bulldozers razed multiple structures in the city’s New Market and a statue of Vladimir Lenin was brought down in Murshidabad district.

“Two of our workers were killed after the results of the elections were announced on Monday,” BJP state leader Samik Bhattacharya told the AFP news agency.

The TMC denied any involvement in the killings and accused the BJP of vandalising its party offices. “Violence and political killings have no place in a democracy and the guilty must be held accountable at the earliest,” it said.

A senior police officer, who was not authorised to speak to reporters, confirmed to the news agency that there had been four deaths in the clashes and said one officer had been shot in the leg.

Kolkata police chief Siddh Nath Gupta said more than 200 criminal cases have been registered ‌across ⁠the state for the violence, and 433 people have been arrested.

The gunmen who fired at Rath were still at large days after the incident, according to reports. At least five BJP workers sustained injuries after crude bombs were hurled on Thursday in the North 24 Paraganas district.