Amid Mamata, BJP slugfest over attack on NIA, a look at long shadow of violence on Bengal polls

A political row erupted in West Bengal Saturday in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections after a team of National Investigation Agency (NIA) officials was allegedly attacked by villagers at Bhupatinagar in East Medinipur district, where they had gone to investigate a 2022 bomb blast case in which three people were killed.

Hours after the incident, Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee accused the NIA officials of allegedly attacking the villagers, and not the other way round. “The attack was not carried out by women of Bhupatinagar, but by the National Investigation Agency (NIA). Will the women sit back if they are attacked? Why did they raid at midnight? Did they have police permission? Locals reacted in the way they would have, if any other stranger had visited the place at midnight,” she said.

“Why are they arresting people right before the elections? What does the BJP think — that they will arrest every booth agent? What right does the NIA have? They are doing all these things to support the BJP. We call upon the entire world to fight against BJP’s dirty politics,” Mamata said, while addressing a public meeting in Balurghat in South Dinajpur district.

The BJP slammed the TMC government for the attack on the NIA team, pointing out that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) officers were also allegedly assaulted by its activists in Sandeshkhali in North 24 Parganas in January.The Saturday incident brought into sharp focus Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s message to BJP workers in the state Wednesday, when he said that poll violence was the biggest challenge in West Bengal, asking party workers to visit every home to encourage people to vote fearlessly.

In his virtual interaction with BJP workers, PM