A 28-year-old BJP worker was killed on Sunday following overnight clashes with Trinamul supporters in Hooghly’s Arambagh.

Sheikh Amir Ali was a toto driver and BJP leaders alleged he was “beaten mercilessly” by Trianmul supporters. Ali succumbed to his injuries at a Calcutta hospital on Sunday afternoon, after which BJP workers ransacked two Trinamul offices and blocked roads.

Sources said Ali was a former CPM worker who joined the BJP shortly before this year’s Lok Sabha polls. “We have arrested three persons,” said Tatagatha Basu, district police chief of Hooghly (rural).

“On Sunday morning, he (Ali) was at a tea stall in the Kalipur area when he was attacked by a group brandishing iron rods,” said a villager.

BJP Arambagh president Biman Ghosh said Ali was beaten by Trinamul goons “mercilessly”. “We will block roads again in Arambagh if all culprits behind the murder are not arrested within 24 hours.”

Trinamul leaders denied the charges and maintained that one of their workers was also injured in Saturday’s clashes and that Ali’s murder had no connection with the party. “The BJP is playing dirty politics with the murder. The murder was the result of personal rivalry,” said Dilip Yadav, Trinamul’s president in Hooghly.