At least five deaths have been reported from different parts of West Bengal since results of the assembly election were declared on Monday, 4 May. The latest casualty is BJP leader and a front runner for the chief minister’s post Suvendu Adhikari’s executive assistant, who was shot dead around 10.20 pm on Wednesday while returning home to Barasat in North 24-Parganas. TMC has claimed three of its workers were killed in the first 48 hours after the counting.

On Wednesday, DGP Siddh Nath Gupta briefed the media and confirmed that a total of 200 FIRs had been registered regarding post-poll incidents, leading to the arrest of 433 individuals.

“Since 4 May, after the announcement of results, there have been incidents of violence, including threats, assaults, and intimidation. We have detained more than 1,100 people under preventive measures,” he said, adding that there have been reports of violence and assault since Wednesday morning.

Gupta confirmed two deaths related to post-poll violence – one at Nanoor and another at New Town, Rajarhat on the outskirts of Kolkata. “We are investigating both cases. We have been able to arrest those involved in these two murders,” he said.

Responding to allegations made by Trinamool Congress that BJP workers had unleashed the violence, BJP state president Samik Bhattacharya had said that internal squabbles within TMC were responsible for the violence. Trinamool workers were misusing BJP’s flags, he alleged, while engaging in violence. “TMC is attacking TMC…," he was quoted as saying.

There are indications that a section of TMC workers, out of fear or otherwise, have overnight changed colours and switched their loyalty. Visuals of policemen and state government employees dancing while shouting slogans of Jai Shri Ram have been circulating.

A state government employee, a Left Front supporter, confided that he had been advised by colleagues to lie low and shout JSR slogans in order to escape attention to his political affiliation. Doubts are also being expressed over the possibility of people settling personal scores and local business rivals using the turmoil after the election to vandalise property of competitors.

However, the role of the CAPF too has come under increasing scrutiny as visuals of the CAPF standing by while mobs resort to violence have also been circulating. The armed troops seem to be under instructions not to intervene.

With the Election Commission having sidelined local police in the run up to the elections, the authority of the police appears to have collapsed. This would explain the use of a bulldozer to demolish a TMC office outside the Hogg market known as the New Market in central Kolkata, a stone’s throw from the police headquarters.

Several incidents of violence and vandalism have been recorded in the state over the last three days. Some of them are the following:

• Several youths scaled a decorative gateway arch of Masjid Bari Road in Barasat’s Nabapally area, broke off the letterings, and replaced them with a hoarding reading “Netaji Pally”

• A park named Siraj Udyan in Champadali, Barasat, was also ‘renamed’ as Shibaji Udyan

• Saffron-clad BJP workers approached a biryani shop located next to a temple in Bongaon, North 24 Parganas, and asked the staff to move the shop elsewhere

• BJP workers stormed into and vandalised the Lalbagh Eidgah in Murshidabad. In a video circulating online, saffron-clad workers can be seen aggressively breaking a tin barricade and forcing their way into the field amid chants of “Jai Shi Ram”

• Shops of Muslim fruit vendors in Uluberia were targeted Muslim-owned shops were vandalised.

• In Dinhata, a ‘Bengal Taj Mahal selfie point’ was vandalised & burnt by a mob chanting “Tel lagake Babur ka, Naam mitado Babur ka”

• At Jiaganj in north Bengal, a statue of Lenin was broken and dislodged

• Several TMC leaders, workers and outgoing ministers were heckled, manhandled and thrashed in different parts of the state

• In a free-for-all, party offices of the TMC across the state are being taken over by other parties, including non-BJP parties.

Even after dementia had taken away much of his memory, legendary Urdu poet Bashir Badr would still respond to the mention of filmmaker Vishal Bhardwaj’s name — a reflection of a friendship that shaped the director’s life and creative journey for more than four decades.

Bhardwaj, speaking to PTI following Badr’s death at the age of 91, described the poet not merely as a literary influence but as one of the defining figures of his life.

“The track of poetry in my life is the strongest part of my personality, my creativity. My music is because of my poetry. My films are because of my poetry,” Bhardwaj said, adding that he regarded Badr and poet-lyricist Gulzar as parental figures who helped shape his artistic sensibility.

The filmmaker said he was only 19 when he first encountered Badr’s poetry in Meerut, where the poet taught and lived. The introduction came through Badr’s daughter, who was a classmate of Bhardwaj’s sister. After borrowing one of the poet’s books, the young Bhardwaj spent an entire night copying verses into his diary.

What began as admiration soon evolved into a close friendship.

Bhardwaj recalled visiting Badr almost every weekend, listening to newly written poems and memorising them with remarkable ease. Those visits became even more significant after a tragic turning point in Badr’s life.

Recovering poetry from memory

In 1987, Badr’s house in Meerut was burned down in communal violence, destroying much of his unpublished work. Around the same period, he also lost his first wife and slipped into depression. It was during that painful phase that he wrote some of his most memorable lines, including the widely quoted verse: “Log toot jaate hain ek ghar banane mein, tum taras nahi khate bastiya jalane mein.”

Bhardwaj said his own memory became an unexpected archive.

“I could remember 90 per cent of what he had narrated to me. He would ask me about those couplets and I would narrate them back. I helped him retrieve at least 90 per cent of the poetry,” he recalled.

The director described evenings spent with Badr and the poet’s friend Prem Bhandari as some of the most formative experiences of his youth.

A bond that endured decades

As Bhardwaj established himself first as a music composer and later as one of Hindi cinema’s most acclaimed filmmakers, the friendship endured. Badr’s poetry found its way into Bhardwaj’s creative work, including films such as Betaabi, Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar and Dedh Ishqiya. The filmmaker has also independently composed and released several of Badr’s ghazals and is set to release another composition based on the poet’s writing next month.

Bhardwaj said Badr was among the first people to recognise his talent.

“Even when I was struggling, he would tell everyone, ‘You have to trust me when I say that this boy is very talented,’” he recalled.

In later years, even as dementia progressed, flashes of memory remained. Bhardwaj recounted an incident when Badr had stopped speaking for days but unexpectedly completed one of his own forgotten couplets, leaving everyone around him stunned.

The filmmaker said he still gifts copies of Badr’s poetry to people he deeply cares about, considering it one of the most meaningful things he can share. For him, the poet’s influence extends far beyond literature.

“He was a saint, a beautiful saint. All poets are saints, but Bashir Badr was a saint of some other level,” Bhardwaj said.

Bhardwaj is expected to attend a memorial meeting for the poet at Ravindra Bhawan in Bhopal on 4 June.

The Commission of Inquiry probing the ethnic violence in Manipur has stepped up its fact-finding efforts, with its members visiting relief camps, interacting with displaced families and reviewing ground conditions across violence-hit districts during a three-day visit to the state.

The three-member panel, headed by retired Supreme Court judge justice B.S. Chauhan, met chief minister Yumnam Khemchand Singh and briefed him on the purpose and progress of its visit.

According to officials, the commission visited relief camps housing internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Bishnupur, Churachandpur, Imphal West and Imphal East districts between 29 and 31 May.

As part of the outreach, the inquiry team inspected the prefabricated relief camp at Torbung in Churachandpur district and interacted directly with families displaced by the Meitei-Kuki ethnic conflict.

Camp residents shared first-hand accounts of displacement, insecurity, loss of livelihoods and the challenges of rebuilding their lives after the violence.

The affected families also conveyed their concerns regarding rehabilitation, security arrangements and government support, providing the commission with an opportunity to assess conditions on the ground and hear grievances directly from victims.

Officials said the field visit forms part of the panel's efforts to gather first-hand evidence and ensure the inquiry reflects the experiences of communities affected across both the hill and valley regions of the state.

The commission comprises justice B.S. Chauhan as chairman, along with retired IAS officer Himanshu Sekhar Das and retired IPS officer Aloka Prabhakar as members.

The inquiry panel is tasked with examining the causes of the ethnic unrest, reconstructing the sequence of events that led to the violence, identifying any administrative lapses and assessing factors that contributed to the escalation of the conflict.

It has also been mandated to recommend measures aimed at preventing a recurrence of such violence, restoring public confidence and facilitating long-term peace and normalcy in the state.

Meanwhile, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs has extended the commission's tenure, with the deadline for submission of its final report now pushed to 20 November 2026.

The panel, initially headed by former Gauhati High Court chief justice Ajai Lamba, is currently led by justice Chauhan and has been conducting hearings, recording testimonies and collecting evidence from stakeholders and affected communities since its formation in June 2023.

Officials said the latest visit is expected to strengthen the Commission's understanding of the humanitarian impact of the conflict and help shape its final recommendations on accountability, rehabilitation and peace-building in Manipur.

With IANS inputs