The body of a youth was found hanging from a mango tree inside a deserted orchard in Nadia’s Gayeshpur on Sunday and the BJP claimed the deceased as its worker and accused Trinamul of terrorising political opponents.

Bijoy Sil, 28, was a resident of ward 4 in Gayeshpur town and a driver of a LPG cylinder delivery vehicle, said police sources. The police registered an unnatural death case and started an investigation even as the local BJP leadership called it a political murder and organised protests in the district.

“Bijoy had been a Trinamul activist. He joined the BJP before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. He was being regularly threatened by Trinamul goons as they wanted him to come back to Trinamul,” said local BJP leader Bappa Mitra, who claimed he was Sil’s relative.

Soon, senior state BJP leaders joined the chorus and started visiting Sil’s home.

“This is another political murder. Our party has called a 12-hour strike in Kalyani on Monday. We will stage protests in front of all police stations in the state tomorrow,” said Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh.

The deceased’s wife, Kamil, said her husband hadn’t killed himself. “He was dedicated and worked hard for the education of our children. But he had faced repeated threats from some miscreants of our locality.”

She couldn’t confirm her husband’s political leanings. “My husband was very close to a BJP leader and often accompanied him...But I have no idea if he was involved with political activities,” she said.

Trinamul said Sil was its worker and he had committed suicide.

The BJP said it was drawing up plans to organise movements against alleged political killings by Trinamul over the next few days.

The statements of the BJP leaders and their plans to organise larger protests bore hints that the saffron ecosystem is planning to create a narrative that law and order in the state is worsening.

“Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar is publicly commenting on law and order in Bengal.... Then, Union home minister Amit Shah is coming to the state this week and it seems to be a strategy to keep talking about law and order in Bengal,” said a political observer.