A vice-president of the BJP’s youth wing in Bengal died after he took ill following an alleged brawl with his colleagues at the end of a party meeting in Calcutta on Monday.
Raju Sarkar, aged around 40, died while he was being taken to a private nursing home in Calcutta.
Sources said there was a meeting of the Yuva Morcha’s Calcutta zone at the BJP office in Hastings, Calcutta, on Monday.
“Sarkar looked alright during the meeting. After the meeting was over, he had a quarrel with a few Yuva Morcha leaders, which soon descended into a brawl. We brought him downstairs and it was then that he complained of chest pain. We took Sarkar to SSKM hospital and from there to a private nursing home. He passed away while on way to the nursing home,” said a Yuva Morcha source.
Another source said there was no bed vacant at the SSKM hospital.
The deceased was known to be a close associate of Saumitra Khan, the state Yuva Morcha chief and Bishnupur MP. Sarkar had switched to the BJP in 2017. His switch came after the former de facto number two in Trinamul, Mukul Roy, had joined the BJP.
Sarkar had recently resigned from his post through a message on the official WhatsApp group of the Yuva Morcha. However, Khan refused to accept the resignation and Sarkar continued in the post.
BJP insiders said Sarkar had always been in the old-timers’ bad books as he was a Trinamul turncoat. There was unrest in the Yuva Morcha over the recent appointment of a state secretary, which Sarkar was said to have facilitated.
“He was always very close to Mukulda. After Mukulda returned to Trinamul, there was a buzz that Sarkar was spying on us for him. So, many members, including one of our general secretaries, were very sceptical of him,” a Yuva Morcha leader said.
State BJP chief Dilip Ghosh said: “This is very unfortunate. He was such a lively boy... However, I’m unaware of any brawl.”
An officer of Hastings police station said: “We have heard about Sarkar’s death. But no one has lodged any complaint.”
Additional reporting by Monalisa Chaudhuri
