Hundreds arrested after post-poll violence kills at least three in Indian state


Security personnel stand guard during vote counting for the West Bengal legislative assembly election polls outside a counting centre in Kolkata, India, May 4, 2026. REUTERS/Sahiba Chawdhary/File Photo

NEW DELHI, May ⁠7 (Reuters) - Hundreds of people were arrested after ⁠post-election violence erupted this week in an ‌eastern Indian state, killing at least three people, including the aide to a senior leader of Prime Minister ​Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party.

Here are ⁠some details.

• Modi's ⁠BJP defeated incumbent Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool ⁠Congress (TMC) in ‌the election in West Bengal state, where she has held power since ⁠2011.

• Banerjee has refused to resign, saying ​she has "not ‌been defeated" and accusing the Election Commission ⁠of colluding ​with the BJP to win the election.

• More than 200 criminal cases have been registered across ⁠the state for the violence ​and 433 people have been arrested, police chief Siddh Nath Gupta told reporters on Wednesday.

• BJP ⁠has accused the TMC of carrying out "targeted assassinations".

• TMC has condemned the violence that it says is being carried out by "BJP-backed miscreants".

• West ​Bengal has a history of ⁠post-election violence, and about a dozen people were ​killed during similar clashes between ‌political parties after results were ​declared during the previous polls in 2021.

(Reporting by Sakshi Dayal and Raju Gopalakrishnan)

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