BJP Candidate Bikash Sardar Alleges TMC Attack on Vehicle in Basanti as Phase 2 Polling Begins in Bengal

On Wednesday morning, as the second phase of West Bengal's Assembly election got under way, Bikash Sardar, the BJP candidate from Basanti, told the news agency ANI that his car had been attacked. He said a crowd of 200 to 250 Trinamool Congress workers came at the vehicle with rods and bamboo sticks, and that they went after his driver as well. In his words, what he called "gundagiri" by the TMC was happening across the constituency.

The account is Sardar's own. The report does not carry a response from the Trinamool Congress, and it does not say whether police confirmed the attack or whether anyone was hurt beyond the claim that the driver was targeted.

A second allegation came from Nadia district, in the Chapra Assembly constituency. Mosharraf Mir, a BJP polling agent at booth number 53 under Hatra Panchayat, said he was attacked at about 5:30 am, before voting had properly begun. He described 15 to 20 armed people who allegedly beat him with iron rods, and said firearms were involved.

Mir named a man he said was at the center of it, Janiallamulla, whom he called a criminal with several cases against him. According to Mir, Janiallamulla and two other men were brandishing guns when another 15 to 20 people approached with iron rods and canes. He said he was hit first and fell, and that the blows kept coming. People who were with him were also attacked, he said.

Police officials rescued Mir and admitted him to Chapra Rural Hospital, where he is being treated. He received six stitches on his head. He told ANI he wants the police to arrest those responsible and that he wants justice. The allegations against the named man are Mir's claims; the report does not say whether any arrests have been made.

Voting itself moved ahead across the districts. Turnout up to 9 am stood at 20.86 per cent in Purba Bardhaman, the highest reported, followed by Hooghly at 20.16 per cent and Nadia at 18.50 per cent. North 24 Parganas recorded 17.81 per cent and Howrah 17.76 per cent. In Kolkata, the North and South constituencies logged 17.28 and 16.81 per cent. A separate figure cited in the report put statewide turnout at 39.97 per cent as of 11 am.

The second phase covers 142 of the state's 294 seats. The electorate is about 3.21 crore people: 1,64,35,627 men, 1,57,37,418 women and 792 transgender voters. The principal contest in the 2026 election is between the Trinamool Congress and the BJP.

In Bhabanipur, one of the phase's closely watched urban seats, West Bengal Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari inspected polling booths early in the day. TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee cast his vote at the Mitra Institute polling booth in the same constituency. Beyond Bhabanipur, attention is on a group of five urban contests, among them Tollygunge, the home of the Bengali film industry, where a star-studded fight is under way.

For now the allegations of violence in Basanti and Chapra stand as claims from the BJP side, unverified in this report. Whether police or the Election Commission act on them, and how the TMC answers, will shape how this phase is remembered once the 142 seats are counted.