Post-Poll Bloodshed in Bengal: Suvendu Adhikari’s Top Aide Ambushed and Shot Dead Near
KOLKATA: In a major outbreak of post-poll violence following the West Bengal Assembly election results, Chandranath Rath, the personal assistant and highly trusted troubleshooter for heavyweight BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari, was shot dead in a ruthless ambush late on Wednesday night in Madhyamgram.
The 41-year-old Indian Air Force veteran was returning home to Barasat inside a vehicle bearing an Assembly election duty sticker when his car was trailed and cornered near Doharia on Jessore Road. Unidentified motorcycle-borne hitmen intercepted the moving vehicle as it slowed down and fired four rounds at point-blank range, smashing the front windshield and striking Rath with three bullets across his head, chest, and abdomen.
The critical assault left Rath dead on arrival at a local private nursing home, while his driver, Buddhadeb Bera, remains in critical condition under intensive care.The assassination has triggered intense political warfare in the state, with frontrunner for the Chief Minister post Suvendu Adhikari branding it a highly trained, cold-blooded execution.
Adhikari explicitly alleged that Rath was assassinated strictly out of political vengeance because Adhikari defeated Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee in the high-stakes Bhabanipur constituency. Denying the allegations, the TMC issued a formal statement strongly condemning the murder while concurrently demanding a court-monitored CBI investigation.
The ruling party also countered that three of its own party workers had been murdered in separate post-poll clashes. As tensions surge, heavy police contingents have been deployed, and investigators have successfully recovered the getaway motorcycles used by the assailants as they scan local CCTV feeds to locate the contract killers.
