Miscreants hurled bombs at the house of an elected Trinamool Congress member of Gobindapur gram panchayat in Islampur police district on Monday night.

The incident took place within a week of the killing of a local Trinamool leader Bapi Roy. Bapi’s wife Lipi is also a member of Islampur panchayat samiti.

The incident of attacks on panchayat member families has put the spotlight on the intra-party feud, more so because Gobindapur is marred by factionalism.

Police, however, said that they have arrested one Aniket Sarkar from the Bidhannagar police station area near Siliguri in connection with the murder of Bapi. Police sources said that Aniket had a rivalry with Bapi over business issues.

At Gobindapur, police sources said a couple of bombs were hurled at the house of Lucky Parvin, an elected Trinamool member of Gobindapur gram panchayat.

Parvin was away from home but her husband Fariyad Alam narrowly escaped injury.

“The attack took place at around 12 noon when I was in my bedroom. One bomb was hurled at the roof of the house and the other was pelted at the window of my bedroom, which fortunately did not explode. So, I escaped narrowly,” Alam said.

Parvin, who rushed to her house soon after the attack, said; “The opposition parties are non-existent at Gobindapur. I suspect that miscreants indulged by some of our party leaders are behind the attack. Only a week ago a Trinamul leader was gunned down and now my house is targeted. We are naturally in a state of panic.”

Notably, Trinamool did not field any candidate in any of the 23 seats of Gobindapur gram panchayat on the party symbol because of factionalism during the rural polls in 2023.

Even a meeting between Kanhaiyalal Agarwal, the district Trinamul president and Hamidur Rahman, MLA of Chopra to select party candidates did not yield any result. Trinamul activists contested as independent candidates and the winners were inducted into the party later.

Those who were defeated alleged that they were being victimised.

The youth arrested in connection with the murder of Bapi was on Tuesday remanded in police custody for 10 days.

“One person has been arrested in connection with the shootout at a line hotel,” said JB Thomas, SP of Islampur police district. “Although no official complaint has been lodged yet, we have started a probe into the incident of bombing at the house of a panchayat member at Gobindapur,” he added.

Agarwal, the district Trinamool president said: “Police have already arrested a man in connection with the killing of our party leader. We have also requested the police to identify and arrest the culprits who hurled bombs at our party’s panchayat member’s house. Such violence has to be nipped in the bud.”