On the day of by-polls in West Bengal, senior BJP leader and the party's candidate for Karimpur Assembly by-poll Jay Prakash Majumdar was thrashed while entering a polling booth.
Video footage of the incident shows Majumdar being beaten up and kicked, allegedly by TMC activists at Phipulkhola area of Nadia district.
Majumdar later took to Twitter to share the video of the attack on him and held TMC "goons" responsible for the act, writing, "I hope this proves how the ordinary people of Karimpur are staying".
According to a report, he also said that while wounds may heal, the incident is a "clear" sign of the "end of democracy" in West Bengal. The BJP leader alleged that the TMC activists were false voters who had assembled in the area with the intention of rigging polls.
"But it will not demoralise me and I will continue to visit all the booths. I have complained to the Election Commission," Majumdar, the vice president of the state unit of the BJP, said.
Several BJP leaders also took to social media to condemn the incident.
Denying the allegations as "baseless", the Nadia district unit of the TMC said, locals had attacked Majumdar as they were angry with him for "vitiating" the poll atmosphere.
The EC has sought reports about the incident.
According to IANS, the BJP requested the Election Commission to take action against the Trinamool Congress alleging that their workers attacked the party's state vice-president in the presence of police and media.
TMC MP Mohua Moitra declined to comment.
Besides Karimpur, by-polls are underway in Kharagpur Sadar and Kaliaganj Assembly seats.
While Kharagpur Sadar and Karimpur seats were held by the TMC, Kaliaganj was represented in the Assembly by the Congress.
In Karimpur, vacated by MLA Mahua Moitra after emerging victorious from Krishnnanagar Lok Sabha seat, CPI(M)-Congress candidate Gholam Rabbi is contesting against Majumdar and TMC's Bimalendu Singha Roy.
The Kharagpur Sadar seat fell vacant as the sitting TMC MLA contested and won a Lok Sabha seat.
By-polls were necessitated in Kaliaganj following the death of Congress MLA Parmathanath Roy.
(With inputs from Agencies)
