Two farmers in North Dinajpur district have accused BJP workers of setting afire paddy which was ready for harvest in their field as the duo recently deserted the saffron party and joined the Trinamul Congress.

Jangu Sheikh and Bishu Sheikh, residents of Songram village in Raiganj block, filed a complaint at Raiganj police station. Police officers have visited the spot and are probing the case.

BJP leaders have denied the allegation.

Sources said a group of BJP supporters at Songram and some neighbouring villages had on Monday joined Trinamul at a programme in the presence of the party’s district president Kanaialal Agarwala and Raiganj MLA Krishna Kalyani who had left the BJP earlier.

“After we joined Trinamul, BJP workers have become furious and some of them set fire on our field we jointly own last night. We have lost around 2,400 quintals of paddy that was ready for harvest,” said one of the farmers.

According to him, they had planned to sell a portion of the harvest and keep the remaining with themselves for their own consumption. Altogether, the duo have to bear a loss of around Rs 50,000, said their neighbours.

Local BJP leader Ajit Kumar Pal said: “BJP workers might switch to other parties but that does not mean we will damage the crop of farmers. It was an unfortunate incident. The charges against the BJP are baseless. We believe police will unearth the truth.”