A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's massive rally in West Bengal's Siliguri, body of a 42-year-old man was found hanging at abooth office of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The incident, which took place in the Siliguri Municipal Corporation Ward Number 36, has caused alarm in the area ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. The deceased has been identified as Nitya Mandal who worked as a labourer.
Mandal's wife Rina said she was unsure if it was suicide or murder. "He had no fight or enmity with anyone, had been unwell. I don't know if its a murder or suicide," she said.
Locals out on morning walk spotted the body hanging from the BJP booth office and informed the police. The body has now been sent for postmortem and the local police has launched an investigation.
Polling in Siliguri, which falls under Darjeeling Lok Sabha constituency, will be held in the second phase of General Elections, scheduled on April 18.
This comes a day after Prime Minister Modi's mammoth rally in the town. Calling state Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee a “speed breaker”, Modi accused her of hindering a number of central welfare schemes in the state, like Ayushman Bharat, PM-KISAN, and Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016.
Modi, who kicked off his Lok Sabha campaign in West Bengal with back to back rallies in Siliguri and Kolkata, hit out at Banerjee over a host of issues including alleged lack of development, perpetuating family rule and for seeking proof of Indian Air Force's retributive strike on terror camps in Pakistan to avenge Pulwama killing of 40 CRPF troopers.
Calling Banerjee a "speedbreaker" in the way of West Bengal's development, Modi said he was waiting for that to get out of the way so the state can march forward.
"I have not been able to ensure the development of Bengal with the same speed as the rest of the country. The reason for this is that in Bengal there is a speedbreaker, and this speedbreaker is known as Didi," Modi said, attacking the West Bengal chief minister.
Soon after Modi concluded his speech at Brigade Parade Ground in Kolkata, Banerjee took the microphone at a rally in north Bengal's Dinhata, calling the prime minister "expiry babu" (one whose time to go had come).
"I am not Modi, I don't tell lies," she declared, as she took on the prime minister over his "speedbreaker Didi" jibe.
(With PTI inputs)
