Bombs hurled at BJP leader's home in Bhatpara

Bombs were hurdled at a local BJP leader's house at Bhatpara in North 24 Parganas district in West Bengal, where the saffron party is struggling to retain its hold as the ruling TMC has wrested control of the civic body.

A CCTV footage aired on TV news channels showed bombs and bricks being hurdled at the BJP leader's home on Friday night.

None was hurt in the incident, the police said.

The BJP alleged that Trinamool Congress goons had carried out the attack, but the TMC has denied it.

Bhatpara has been a scene of violence and conflict since before the general election in 2019 when the local TMC leader and civic body chairman Arjun Singh quit the party and joined BJP. He then went on to win the Barrackpore Lok Sabha seat on the saffron party's ticket.

Scales had tilted in the municipality after 26 TMC councillors joined the BJP following last year's Lok Sabha polls and Sourav Singh, the nephew of Arjun Singh, had been elected the chairman.

Over the past few months several of the councillors had returned to the TMC. The party's councillors had moved and won the no-confidence motion against Sourav Singh in January this year.

Bhatpara was the last of the civic bodies to slip away from the control of the saffron party in the West Bengal.

Meanwhile, a 30-year-old man who sustained injury inflicted by a bomb splinter when he was caught in a clash between the BJP and TMC in January lost his eyes.

"His eye had to be extracted to save his life," a member of his family said.