The driver of the car, who also suffered bullet wounds, underwent several surgeries and is in critical condition.
“His condition remains very critical. He underwent several surgical procedures and is being closely monitored in the intensive care unit,” a senior official at the hospital where he is being treated was quoted as saying by PTI.
Although BJP leaders accused the TMC of being behind the murder, Suvendu Adhikari did not directly name any organization while appealing to party workers to have faith in the police and law enforcement agencies.
“We don’t want to jump to any conclusion now as the police is investigating the matter. I have faith in our police, who were earlier made inactive and partisan by the TMC regime,” he said after visiting the hospital where Chandranath’s body was kept.
The opposition leader also alleged that attacks on BJP workers were continuing in some districts after the poll results.
Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, meanwhile, on Thursday alleged that the incident reflected a “blood-soaked political culture” in West Bengal under the TMC regime.
In a post on X, Pradhan called the killing a “cold-blooded, barbaric and cowardly execution by TMC goons” and alleged that BJP workers and supporters in the state were repeatedly targeted, assaulted and killed for refusing to surrender to TMC’s “politics of fear and intimidation”.
“The brutal killing of Chandranath Rath, Suvendu Adhikari ji’s aide, is another grim reminder of the blood-soaked political culture unleashed by Mamata Banerjee and the TMC in West Bengal,” he said in the post.
He further claimed that this was not “isolated violence, but a deliberate ecosystem of terror designed to suppress democratic opposition”.
In a statement, Pradhan said the TMC was resorting to “threats, brutality and political bloodshed” as it faced falling support in the state.
“What the state is witnessing today is a direct attack on democracy itself, where dissent is met with violence and political rivalry is treated as a justification for murder,” he was quoted as saying in Pradhan’s release. He also said violence and revenge had no place in democracy and asserted that those responsible for political violence, “whether perpetrators or defenders”, would be held accountable under the law.
“The sacrifice of Rath and countless BJP karyakartas will not be forgotten or allowed to go in vain. The struggle to restore peace, security and true democratic values in West Bengal will continue with full determination,” the release quoted him as saying.
He offered his condolences to Rath’s family and prayed for peace for the departed soul.
(With data from PTI)
