KOLKATA: Four people have been killed in political unrest following state election results in India’s West Bengal, after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist party celebrated victory, police and party officials said on Wednesday.
Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) swept the polls in the key eastern state of more than 100 million people, securing 206 of the 294 assembly seats, according to results announced on Monday. This marks the party’s first-ever victory in West Bengal.
West Bengal had been governed since 2011 by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, a staunch critic and political rival of Modi.
Banerjee, who leads the All India Trinamool Congress (TMC), also lost her seat in the elections and has rejected the results.
Police said clashes between rival party supporters broke out in the state capital Kolkata after the results were announced on Monday.
Analysts say the BJP’s victory in the largely Bengali-speaking state is one of its most significant since Modi first came to power in 2014, extending the party’s dominance beyond the Hindi-speaking heartland of northern and central India.
The BJP reported that two of its workers were killed, while the TMC said two of its supporters were beaten to death.
“Two of our workers were killed after results of the elections were announced on Monday,” BJP state leader Samik Bhattacharya told AFP, adding that the party stands “for peace.”
In a statement on social media, the TMC reported the “brutal murder” of two of its workers.
“Our party offices were attacked in several areas of the state,” TMC spokesman Narendranath Chakraborty told AFP. “Two of the victims were grassroots political workers.”
A senior police officer, who was not authorised to speak to reporters, confirmed four deaths in the clashes and said that one officer had been shot in the leg.