Former Trinamul Congress MLA Udayan Guha was attacked by suspected BJP supporters while he was moving through Dinhata town on Thursday.

The right hand of the ex-Dinhata MLA was fractured and his security guard suffered an injury to the head. The attackers also ransacked the vehicle in which Guha was travelling.

Trinamul called for a 30-hour bandh in Dinhata from 6pm on Thursday in protest against the attack.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee said Guha had been attacked by BJP supporters.

“Udayan Guha has been attacked and one of his arms got fractured. In Cooch Behar, the BJP is becoming more violent. There had been violence wherever the BJP had won (in the Assembly polls) across the state. We want to make it clear that police will take appropriate steps against the perpetrators,” she said at a news conference in Nabanna.

Sources said suspected BJP supporters had ransacked a club in ward 3 of Dinhata municipality on Wednesday night. Since then, there had been tension in the area.

While Guha was passing through the area on Thursday morning, he got off his car and asked a group of youths why they were standing front of the club.

“This led to an altercation and a youth identified as Ajay Roy, who had recently defected to the BJP from Trinamul, along with others, attacked Guha. As the Trinamul leader tried to save himself, he was hit on the right hand with a stick. His security guard was beaten up and the car ransacked. The attackers then fled the spot,” said a police source.

Partha Pratim Roy, the Cooch Behar district Trinamul president, said the attack on Guha had betrayed the BJP’s desperation to foment tension in Dinhata. “Trinamul supporters are panicked now,” said Roy.

Guha has been admitted to the Dinhata subdivisional hospital. Roy and former minister Rabindranath Ghosh called on Guha at the hospital.

Both Trinamul and the BJP have strong bases in the Dinhata Assembly segment where sitting MLA Guha was defeated by Cooch Behar MP and BJP candidate Nisith Pramanik.

Cooch Behar district BJP president Malati Rava has denied that his party was behind the attack on the Trinamul leader. “Guha was defeated because of Trinamul’s internal squabbling. Whatever happened today (Thursday) was because of Trinamul’s infighting. No BJP worker was involved in the attack,” said Rava.

Police said a probe was on. “Investigation has started. Our men are patrolling different areas to prevent any breach of peace,” said a senior police officer.