BJP MLAs will skip assembly sessions till violence lasts: Dilip Ghosh

KOLKATA/MALDA: Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh announced that party MLAs will not attend the assembly session as long as violence continued in the districts.
The party would also stay away from the assembly speaker’s election on Saturday.
“We are not going to attend the assembly session called to elect speaker of the House tomorrow. This is not for Saturday only.We won’t take part in assembly sessions till violence continues unabated in the state,” Ghosh said after meeting BJP legislators in the Bengal assembly on Friday.
Ghosh asked party MLAs to return to their constituencies and stay with party workers and victims’ families. “Our party workers are being killed.
Many have been rendered homeless. They can’t come back home. We have to put an end to this terror. Party leaders should provide them support in this hour of crisis,” he said.
On Friday, a Malda village woke up to a macabre incident when they found bodies of two students hanging from a tree in Mothabari assembly constituency. The feet of one touched the ground, as was the case with Hemtabad MLA Debendra Nath Roy. Minor injuries were also found on both bodies.
Malda BJP leaders claimed the two students were active supporters though police didn’t see a “political” hand.
BJP Bengal co-minder Amit Malviya used his Twitter handle to condemn the deaths of Manoj Mandal (18) and Chaitanya Mandal (17). “Every political murder according to WB police is either a suicide or fake. Only in Bengal, people commit suicide by hanging themselves while their legs are folded and feet touching the ground,” Malviya wrote.
Manoj, a labourer’s son from Kalachandtola village in Mothabari, had hogged limelight last year for his brilliant performance in higher secondary examination. He had made it to the top 20 on the HS merit list with 491 score. His close friend Chaitanya, of the same village, too was a good student.
On Friday morning, the boys were found hanging from a tree with the same rope around their necks. Local panchayat member Basudeb Mandal alleged the two were killed and strung from the tree.
Malda SP Alok Rajoria said neither family had named anyone as responsible for the deaths. “We have received no complaint from the families against anybody who could have murdered them. We have traced the shop owner from whom the rope was bought by one of the victims,” the SP said. Malda Police, which took away the bodies for autopsy, tracked social media posts by one of the boys. “The posts suggest he had been going through trouble,” the officer added.
Some of Manoj’s neighbours said the two boys had got hooked to cellphones when their college was closed amid Covid pandemic. They added that the duo used to play online games and were chided by family members after the two lost substantial money.
BJP Malda president Gobinda Mandal, however, didn’t buy this version. Claiming the two students were active BJP supporters, he said: “I won’t jump to conclusions. But police should investigate properly before labelling it suicide. This is serious when the state has been witnessing large scale post-poll violence.”
Trinamool MLA Sabina Yeasmin said: “BJP should refrain from doing dirty politics with the dead.”