Ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, J P Nadda, National President of the BJP, will visit West Bengal for two days beginning August 12, according to the sources, news agency ANI reported. Nadda is expected to meet the West Bengal BJP leadership over preparations for the upcoming general assembly polls.
As per the sources, Nadda will also meet the party workers who were injured in the recently held Panchayat elections in the state.
The West Bengal panchayat polls were marred by violence, both in the run-up to the elections and on election day. As clashes and incidents of booth capturing were reported in various districts, at least 18 people were reported dead in poll-related violence.
Ten members of the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) were killed, three each from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress, and two each from the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), as per ANI.
Several instances of ballot box vandalism and destruction were also reported throughout the day. Ballot boxes and ballot papers were set on fire at a booth in Baravita Govt Primary School in the Dinhata area of Cooch Behar district, ANI reported.
Earlier on July 10, Nadda had appointed a fact-finding committee to investigate reports of violence during panchayat elections in West Bengal. Following the visit to the state, BJP MP Vinod Sonkar, from five-member saffron party fact-finding panel to West Bengal said that peace and order had "collapsed" in the state. He further said that post-election violence is frequent in the state, from parliamentary to rural polls. According to reports, ten BJP activists were slain in the aftermath of the July 8 panchayat elections, PTI reported.