A former gram panchayat member of the Trinamool Congress was beaten to death allegedly by goons backed by the BJP in the Mahishadal Assembly segment of East Midnapore on Friday night, hours before voting started in the local Tamluk Lok Sabha constituency.

Sk Moibul, 42, was killed when he was returning home around 11pm on Friday after dropping a Trinamool worker at Bedkundu near Rajaniganj Bazar.

Police sources said criminals had surrounded Moibul. Two Trinamool workers who were accompanying Moibul managed to flee when he was being attacked.

The sources said he had been beaten up severely before being left abandoned in a nearby forest. Police got to know of the attack from the two Trinamool workers who had fled and tried to reach the spot. But a mob allegedly backed by the BJP prevented the police from reaching the spot.

Tamluk BJP candidate Abhijit Gangopadhyay during his visit to a polling station on Saturday. PTI

“Finally, police reached the spot around 12 midnight and rescued Moibul in a serious condition. He was first taken to a hospital at Mahishadal and later shifted to one in Tamluk. But Moibul succumbed to his injuries. Three persons were detained in connection with the murder and are being interrogated,” said a senior police officer in the East Midnapore district.

On Saturday, eight Lok Sabha constituencies spread across East Midnapore, West Midnapore, Bankura, Purulia and Jhargram districts went to the polls in the sixth phase of the general election. Of the eight seats, Tamluk was considered more sensitive following the murder of a BJP leader’s mother in Nandigram on Thursday night. She had been murdered allegedly by Trinamul supporters.

“No major incident barring the murder of Moibul, who was killed on the night before the poll day, was reported from Tamluk. Some agitations took place against the BJP candidate but no complaints of vitiation of the poll were reported throughout the day,” said a senior district official.

The Trinamool MLA from Mahishadal, Tilak Chakraborty, alleged that the BJP had killed Moibul to unleash terror in the area ahead of the polls.

“The BJP failed to gain ground in Tamluk and that’s why they killed our leader to unleash terror in the area,” said Chakraborty.

The BJP said Moibul’s murder was the result of the factional feud in Trinamool.

The Nandigram Assembly segment, where trouble broke out in the past couple of days, reported several incidents during the polling in Tamluk.

Trinamool alleged that the BJP had chased away the party’s agents from at least 10 booths in Sonachura where the BJP leader’s month, Rathirani Ari, had been killed two days ago.

In Nandigram’s Binuria, Karunabha Jana, a Trinamool agent, was beaten up allegedly by BJP workers. In Garchakraberia, workers of Trinamool and the BJP clashed and paramilitary personnel had to resort to baton-charge multiple times.

Sources in Trinamul said the BJP had unleashed terror in several areas of Nandigram and as a result, the party failed to field agents in at least 50 booths.

The BJP candidate, Abhijit Gangopadhyay, faced protests in several areas of Haldia and Moyna throughout Saturday.

“Our party candidate was gheraoed in several areas by Trinamool goons when they failed to capture the booths.... Police helped Trinamool workers create trouble so that our candidate couldn’t move to as many booths as possible,” said a BJP leader.

In the evening, Gangopadhyay launched an agitation in Moyna alleging the police were harassing BJP workers so that they could not take part in the poll process.

Political observers said Tamluk had become a battlefield as neither Trinamool nor the BJP wanted to drag its feet from the area since chief minister Mamata Banerjee and the leader of the Opposition, Suvendu Adhikari, took the contest as a prestige fight.

“The chief minister had lost the Assembly polls in Nandigram to Suvendu. It appears to be a prestige fight for her in Tamluk which houses the Nandigram Assembly segment. On the other hand, Suvendu left no stone unturned to retain his home turf. As a result, the battle in Tamluk was close and tense,” said a political observer.