ISF workers brutally assaulted allegedly by TMC cadre for filing complaint: Sources

In a shocking incident depicting the sad state of affairs in West Bengal, the workers of the Indian Secular Front (ISF) were brutally assaulted in South Parganas. Sources have reported that two ISF workers were allegedly called to the TMC office and were brutally beaten up. It is also alleged that no action has been taken on the perpetrators. According to initial information, the ISF workers were beaten up because they complained to the authority about the highhandedness of the TMC cadre. Shocking videos of the assault have surfaced showing the ISF workers on the ground with the miscreants assaulting them brutally which seemed like a mob lynching incident.

ISF was recently founded in West Bengal in January 2021 by Abbas Siddique who is an influential cleric of the shrine of Furfura Sharif in Hooghly district. The party is contesting the elections in alliance with Congress and Left Front for the 2021 Assembly polls against the and BJP and ruling TMC.

Political violence has been at the centre of debate in the West Bengal assembly election. In the run-up to the state polls, almost all leaders of BJP's top brass were attacked during their visits to the state. One of the major attacks took place on BJP National president JP Nadda's convoy in December while he was on his way to Diamond Harbour. Several leaders in the convoy including Mukul Roy and Sambit Patra were also left injured.

On Wednesday, BJP state president Dilip Ghosh's convoy was also attacked while he was visiting Cooch Behar in North Bengal. The car in which Ghosh was travelling was severely damaged with the windows of the vehicle shattered. Ghosh said his convoy was attacked with bricks, stones, and bombs by the TMC workers, due to which he also sustained injuries on his left arm.

BJP has also claimed that more than 130 of its workers have been killed in political violence for which it has accused TMC of perpetrating the violence. BJP has also stated on multiple occasions that the state police has failed to take any action on the deaths of the BJP workers and has been acting like "TMC goons".

Besides the political violence and killings of opposition party workers, senior BJP leader and MLA Debendra Nath Roy was also found hanging outside his residence in July this year. His death had sent shockwaves across the BJP with party leaders alleging that it is not a suicide but a political killing orchestrated by the TMC. Roy had contested and won the Hemtabad assembly segment - a reserved seat for Scheduled Castes -- on a CPI(M) ticket but had switched over to the BJP after the Lok Sabha polls in 2019. The family of the MLA had claimed that he has been killed and hanged later.

Three out of eight phases have been completed in West Bengal with the remaining phases to go to polls on April 10, April 17, April 22, April 26 and April 29. The first phase concluded with a voter turnout of 82 percent, the second phase concluded with a voter turnout of 80.43 percent, and, the third phase concluded with a voter turnout of 83.93 percent. The counting of votes will be conducted on May 2.