‘Voted for change but this feels same’: Kolkata reels under political violence after BJP victory

Around 10.15 pm on Wednesday, Champa Chakraborty thought she heard the bang of a firecracker going off nearby. But moments later, the commotion that ensued outside her hut made it clear that the sharp sound had signalled something more tragic.

Two assailants had shot dead Chandranath Rath, the executive assistant to Bharatiya Janata Party leader Suvendu Adhikari, a few metres away from Chakraborty’s home in a narrow lane 6 km north of Kolkata airport.

Adhikari, the leader of the opposition in the outgoing West Bengal Assembly, is seen by many as a frontrunner for the post of chief minister.

The murder of his close aide heightened tensions in Kolkata and its suburbs, which have been reeling under the impact of political violence since the BJP swept the state elections on Monday. By Wednesday, the state police had arrested 433 people and filed 200 first information reports in cases of post-election violence across West Bengal, The Indian Express reported.

About 1,100 people have been taken into preventive custody.

The violence has left four people dead across the state.

Chakraborty, who works in a garment factory for Rs 200 a day, admitted that she felt afraid, given that the unrest had reached her doorstep. “We poor people have nothing to do with all...

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