A Trinamul worker received severe burns when a group of alleged BJP activists poured petrol on the 40-year-old and set him afire in a village in East Midnapore's Khejuri on Sunday night.

Nagendranath Majhi has been admitted to the Khejuri block hospital with burns on the upper part of his body.

"Police have started a probe and the accused will be arrested soon," said Somnath Saha, the sub-divisional police officer in Kontai. The police have started an attempt-to-murder case.

Family members of Majhi alleged a group of BJP workers was trying to grab a stretch of land belonging to the family. The goons allegedly stopped him on the way to the local police station where he was going to lodge a complaint about an attempt to capture his land.

"He was caught by the goons and one of them poured petrol on him before setting him afire. A few local people saved him from being burnt alive. The BJP-backed goons managed to flee from the spot," a family member said.

Trinamul leaders accused the BJP of mounting a heinous attack on the party worker. Trinamul's state-general secretary Kunal Ghosh claimed the attack on Majhi was the result of the defeat of the BJP in the rural poll.

"BJP goons had attempted to kill our party worker in the area where the party has captured local gram panchayat by defeating the BJP. The local leaders have been asked to take care of the injured party worker. We will go to Khejuri police station on Wednesday," Trinamul state general secretary Kunal Ghosh said.

Ghosh has also asked police to arrest all those culprits involved in the attack and set a Wednesday afternoon deadline for the cops.

BJP leaders, however, claimed the attack on the Trinamul worker had no connection with politics and was a result of the ruling party's infighting.

"The incident is a result of Trinamul's infighting and the BJP is not connected to it. Trinamul is trying to blame the BJP to get political advantage and harass our party workers," said Tapas Dalai, a BJP leader in East Midnapore.