Man found hanging in West Bengal’s Bagmari day ahead of polls; BJP blames TMC ‘goons’

Midnapore: A 45-year-old man was found hanging near his home in West Bengal’s Paschim Medinipur district on Friday, triggering tension hours ahead of polling in the area, police said. The body of Lal Mohan Soren, whom the BJP claimed as their supporter, was found in a forest near his home in Bagmari in the Salboni police station area, they said. The BJP claimed that Soren was killed and hung from a jamun tree allegedly by Trinamool Congress “goons”, a charge rubbished by the ruling party. Police said the body has been sent for post-mortem, and they can confirm the cause of the death - whether suicide or murder - only after getting the report. BJP’s former district president Shamit Das said, “TMC killed Ananta and hung his body from the tree to disturb peace in the area and intimidate voters and our party’s workers ahead of polling.” The Trinamool Congress denied any connection to the incident, stating that the BJP was doing politics over a death. “We don’t know anything about this. Some person has died and BJP instantly started doing politics over it. Trinamool Congress is not related to any such incident,” said Biswanath Pandab, the TMC president of Midnapore city. The incident triggered tension in the area with Salboni going to the polls in the first phase on Saturday.