Three Trinamool leaders killed in four days; intra-party feuds suspected

A Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader was killed on Sunday (July 13, 2025) at Sainthia in West Bengal’s Birbhum district. Piyush Ghosh, a zonal president of the TMC in Sainthia, was killed about a kilometre from his home. According to the police, the incident occurred in the early hours of Sunday, when the assailants shot Ghosh on a motorcycle from a point-blank range.

Tista Ghosh, wife of the deceased TMC leader, blamed the party’s internal politics for the murder. A threat had been pasted on their door, asking her husband to not venture out of the house, she said. “Politics took his life. I repeatedly begged him to leave politics and the business but he never listened. The government should provide a job for my son. How will we survive?” she said.

Piyush Ghosh is the third Trinamool Congress leader to be murdered over the past three days. Intra-party feuds are suspected in all three deaths.

TMC leader Razzak Khan was killed in Bhangar in South 24 Parganas on Thursday night. On Sunday, the police arrested Mofazzal Molla in connection with the murder of Razzak Khan. Mr. Mofazzal Molla is said to have been Khan’s close friend. While TMC leader and Canning Purba MLA Saukat Molla had earlier blamed supporters of the Indian Secular Front for the murder, Mr. Saukat Molla on Sunday said Mr. Mofazzal Molla was not a leader of the Trinamool Congress.

The wife of the deceased Razzak Khan said that, hours before his death, her husband had met Mr. Saukat Molla. Mr. Mofazzal Molla was a friend who used to visit their house occasionally, she said. In fact, Mr. Mofazzal Molla and Mr. Saukat Molla were seen at the scene of crime together, hours after the murder.

Some locals suggested that “area domination” and local political disputes may have led to the murder.

Another local TMC leader, Abul Kalam Azad, was allegedly hacked to death during a birthday party in Malda’s English Bazar area on Thursday. Azad’s family has alleged that a panchayat member dragged him into a room and killed him. Local TMC supporters were arrested in connection with the murder.

Political violence and infighting in the ruling party have become a regular phenomenon in West Bengal politics. “Infighting in TMC has reached a level where people in the party are killing each other,” Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) State president Samik Bhattacharya said, targeting West Bengal’s ruling party.