Trinamool Congress’ Rajganj candidate Swapna Barman on Friday alleged that unknown miscreants set fire to her house in Jalpaiguri.
The fire, which broke out at about 8 pm, was doused and no one was inside the house during the incident, The Indian Express Bengali quoted the police as saying.
Barman, a heptathlete, claimed that she had been receiving threats after she lost the recent Assembly elections in West Bengal and that her family was also being intimidated, the newspaper reported.
The police are investigating what caused the fire, if it was a case of arson and if there was a political conspiracy, reports added.
“If I had known before that this would happen, I really wouldn’t have come [into politics],” Barman said on social media on Friday. “Today, they even burned down my house.”
“Entering politics was a mistake,” Barman told the Siliguri Times.
Barman had joined the TMC in February ahead of the state elections. She lost to the Bharatiya Janata Party’s candidate Dinesh Sarkar by more than 21,400 votes in Rajganj, a seat held by the TMC since 2009.
Widespread political violence and instances of alleged communal intimidation were reported in West Bengal after the BJP on May 4 defeated the TMC in the polls, ending the 15-year rule of the Mamata Banerjee-led party.
Barman had won a gold medal at the 2018 Asian Games and the heptathlon event at the 2017 Asian Athletics Championships. She was conferred with the Arjuna Award in 2019 for outstanding performance in sports.
On Saturday, Abhishek Banerjee, the TMC’s national general secretary, claimed that “BJP goons” had set fire to Barman’s house, adding that India had “failed” her.
“The first Indian heptathlete to win an Asian Games gold medal for the nation, Swapna Barman carried India’s flag with pride on the global stage,” Abhishek Banerjee said on social media, adding that she had joined the TMC to serve the public.
“Yesterday, BJP goons set fire to her home,” the TMC leader said. “Let that sink in. An athlete who brought glory to the nation is being repaid with violence, intimidation and fear – simply because she chose to stand with the Trinamool Congress. This is the grim reality under BJP’s watch…”
Abhishek Banerjee said that the BJP government must provide an answer and that political violence cannot become the new normal.
“If supporting the Trinamool Congress now means risking your safety, your family and even your home, where are we headed, as a nation?” he asked. “If this is how an athlete who brought glory to India is treated for her political choices, the state of democracy should worry every Indian.”
TMC spokesperson Tanmoy Ghosh urged Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari and BJP’s state chief Samik Bhattacharya to “take note of this matter”, and expressed hope that the political discourse and public statements “remain respectful and responsible”.
Written by Nachiket Deuskar. Edited by Leah Thomas.
Also read: ‘Voted for change but this feels same’: Kolkata reels under political violence after BJP victory
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