Tensions high in West Bengal after BJP aide shot dead and hundreds arrested

Tensions have been high in the Indian state of West Bengal after a top political aide from Narendra Modi’s party was shot dead in the street and hundreds were arrested as violence broke out following elections this week.

The prime minister’s Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) claimed victory in the West Bengal elections on Monday, defeating Trinamool Congress (TMC), which had ruled over the state legislature for 15 years.

Turmoil rocked the state after the results were announced. Figures from TMC, including its leader, Mamata Banerjee, said there had been widespread irregularities in the vote and accused the BJP of “looting” the election. Banerjee said she would refuse to resign, stating that she had “not been defeated”.

Late on Wednesday evening, Chandranath Rath, an assistant to the head of the BJP in West Bengal, Suvendu Adhikari, was shot dead in the streets of the state capital Kolkata by gunmen on a motorcycle. He was pronounced dead at the hospital.

Suvendu Adhikari alleged that the killing took place because he defeated the incumbent chief minister Mamata Banerjee. Photograph: Debajyoti Chakraborty/NurPhoto/Shutterstock

Speaking to reporters, Adhikari, who is the frontrunner to become the state’s next chief minister, said the BJP was “shocked, pained and hurt” by the incident and alleged that the killing had taken place “because I defeated Mamata”.

He said police had believed the killing was a “pre-planned and cold-blooded murder that was carried out after a recce for two to three days”.

TMC denied any involvement in the killing and called for an independent investigation. “Violence and political killings have no place in a democracy and the guilty must be held accountable at the earliest,” it said.

Rath was one of three people killed in violence that erupted across West Bengal since Monday. The state’s police chief, Siddh Nath Gupta, said that more than 200 criminal cases has been registered and 433 people had been arrested for involvement in post-poll violence.