Dinhata town in Cooch Behar wore a deserted look on Friday as Trinamul observed a 30-hour bandh in the town in protest of the attack on party leader and former MLA Udayan Guha.

In the Assembly elections, Guha lost to the BJP’s Nisith Pramanik by only 57 votes.

On Thursday, Guha was attacked by suspected BJP supporters when he was moving through a locality in town.

He ended up with a fractured right hand. His security personnel were hit on the head and the vehicle he was traveling was attacked.

Local BJP leaders alleged the attack on Guha was a fallout of Trinamul’s infighting.

After this, BJP and Trinamul supporters clashed in a number of areas in and around the town.

Police moved in to control the situation. So far, three persons were arrested for organising the attack on Guha. Another eight have been arrested for perpetrating violence and ransacking homes and shops.

On Friday, vehicles remained off road in Dinhata, shops and markets were closed and very few people were seen outside. Policemen patrolled in different places of the town throughout the day.

Guha, under treatment at the Dinhata subdivisional hospital since Thursday, is likely to be shifted to Calcutta on Saturday, said sources.

“He is stable but needs surgery in his hand. It has been decided to fly him to a private hospital in Calcutta for the surgery,” said a party leader.

A district BJP leader said: “None from our party was involved in the attack. But after the incident, houses and shops of many BJP supporters were ransacked across Dinhata. It seems Trinamul leaders and workers of Dinhata could not accept Udayan Guha’s defeat.”

In another development, the family members of Ananda Barman, a Rajbanshi youth who had lost his life in a Sitalkuchi booth during the polls, met district Trinamul president Partha Pratin Roy in Cooch Behar.

On April 10, Ananda came in between warring supporters of Trinamul and BJP and was hit by a bullet.

On Thursday, chief minister Mamata Banerjee announced in Calcutta that a member of Ananda’s family, along with members from the families of four other youths who succumbed to CISF’s bullets in Sitalkuchi’s Jorpatki the same day, would get jobs as home guards.

“After the two firing incidents, the chief minister went to Mathabhanga (the subdivision under which Sitalkuchi falls) to meet all bereaved families. But BJP leaders played politics and stopped Ananda’s family from meeting her. Today, his brother and mother met me and thanked the chief minister for her announcement. We assured them of all possible help,” said Roy.