Kolkata (PTI): A local Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader was murdered by unidentified assailants in West Bengal's Birbhum district, police said on Saturday.

Rajbehari Sardar (65), TMC's booth chief in Patisara gram panchayat, was stabbed and severely beaten up by around five-six people at a function in Nanoor area around 10 pm on Friday, a police officer said.

Sardar was taken to Mangalkot Hospital in neighbouring Purba Bardhaman district where he was declared dead by doctors, he said.

The deceased's son alleged that Sardar was killed by members of a rival faction of the party.

The local TMC leadership said Sardar was a committed party worker and was popular in the area, but claimed that there was no report of the involvement of anyone from the party in the murder.

"We demand a thorough and prompt investigation into the incident," a local TMC leader said.

Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.



Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.

In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.

Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.

He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.

Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.

He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.

Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.

He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.